The AA and the Duplicitous Diary
by Lady Sabine of Macayhill
Summary: Sequel to "A Change in Destiny". Harry Potter and his friends in the Amity Association prepare to start their second year at Hogwarts, but a strange warning from a house-elf puzzles them. Once at Hogwarts, an outrageously stuck-up Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and signs that the warned-of danger are coming true threaten to complicate matters.
1. Chapter 1

Story Summary: Harry Potter and his friends in the Amity Association prepare to start their second year at Hogwarts, but a strange warning from a house-elf puzzles them. Once at Hogwarts, an outrageously stuck-up Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and signs that the warned-of danger are coming true threaten to complicate matters.

Disclaimer for entire fic: I do not own Harry Potter and all related works. It is the property of the fantastic write J.K. Rowling and I am merely playing in her universe.

"Ugh," Harry muttered, grabbing his second pillow and placing it on his head. It was the second time that night that he'd been woken up thanks to Matt crying. True, Sirius had volunteered to put up some sort of Silencing Charm on Harry's bedroom door so that Matt's crying wouldn't wake him during the night. However, Harry had refused, since there were the drawbacks that the spell would also keep sound from leaving his room and if there was an emergency, he'd have to be told in person or (if it was in his room) he'd have to leave his room to tell someone.

A minute later, Matt's wails cut off as either Sirius or Lia dealt with whatever was problem. Harry removed the pillow and wondered when his adoptive brother would sleep through the night. He had a feeling that it wouldn't happen for a few months yet, and by that time, he'd be back at Hogwarts. He just hoped that next summer Matt would be able to get through the night without waking up. That was the most annoying thing about dealing with a baby, in Harry's opinion, though he supposed having to change a dirty nappy would be just as annoying if his godparents had actually expected him to do that. Fortunately, his main interaction with Matt had been giving him his bottle and rocking him to sleep, both activities Harry enjoyed (except for the one time he'd forgotten to place a towel on his shoulder and Matt had ended up spitting all over the back of Harry's shirt after being burped).

At breakfast, Harry asked, "When is Matt going to sleep through the night?"

"Not for at least six months, I believe," Lia answered apologetically. "If the being woken up during the night is getting too bothersome, you could spend a few nights over with Ron. Mum and Dad have said that you're welcome to stay anytime, and you know Ron would be happy to have you over for a sleepover."

"I might do that, Aunt Lia," Harry said. "I love Matt and all, but it would be nice to get an uninterrupted night's sleep every once in a while."

After breakfast, he spent a couple of hours working on his summer homework, with a little help from Sirius over the Transfiguration essay. When that was over, Harry fetched the AA notebook, as for some odd reason, he wasn't getting any letters from any of his friends that he didn't constantly visit, except for Justin, who had sent his two letters via Muggle post. Ron, Hermione, and Neville had no problem with getting post from the rest of the AA, which made Harry's situation look even stranger, so after two weeks of this, the others decided to send his letters to those three and have them pass it on to Harry when they visited or correspond via the notebooks. In Theodore's case, he communicated exclusively via the notebooks, since his father kept a strict watch on the post.

 _Theo, is anything going on since you last wrote?_ Harry wrote in his notebook. _You said your father was angry at you after the first week of the holidays and then we haven't heard anything from you other than a brief message every few days to assure us that you're alive._

The message disappeared a few seconds after being written. Harry waited for a reply, but there was nothing from Theo. Instead, Daphne wrote, saying, " _I'm really worried about Theo. Writing 'Hey guys, I'm still here, don't worry about me' isn't exactly keeping us from worrying. I know Mr. Nott has something of a temper at times, and I'm afraid he could take it out on Theo, especially as Theo's views towards non-purebloods have changed."_

Harry shuddered, as Uncle Vernon's idea of taking out his temper had been to yell at his nephew and then beat him with a belt, not something Harry wanted any of his friends to experience. " _Let's hope nothing has happened to Theo_ ," he wrote back. He picked up one of his Muggle fantasy books to read while waiting for a reply from Theodore, but by lunchtime, there was still no response. The rest of the AA had written, all expressing worry over Theo, and Daphne even contemplated getting her parents to visit the Notts (even though they rarely associated outside of parties and other formal events) just to make sure he was fine.

It wasn't until Harry was making plans to visit Ron and spend the night that there finally was a reply from Theo. The handwriting was so shaky that it wasn't even recognizable as Theo's and it read, _"Harry, this is Theo. Something's happened and I'm going to come over with my stuff. Expect me to be there in a few minutes with Peri. Tell your godparents that I ask for their aid and protection._ "

Harry stared at the note in shock until the writing faded away a minute later, then managed to recollect himself and went to the kitchen, where his godparents were preparing Matt's bottle. "Theo finally wrote back and said he's coming over here with Peri and his things. He's asking for your aid and protection, so I think something bad happened."

Lia and Sirius exchanged worried looks. "We'll take care of things," the former said. "Sirius, please feed Matt while I get Eric and Ellie over here. Harry, wait in the living room for Theodore and Peri, was it, and get me if they show up before Eric and Ellie do."

Harry rushed to the living room, inwardly freaking out. If Lia felt the need to have her two friends that were the Black family lawyer and a healer respectively present, then that meant she felt that things were really bad for Theodore. Harry paced the room for a couple of minutes, then realized that if Peri were to bring herself and Theo via the house-elves' form of Appariation they could potentially land on top of him and forced himself to sit down on the sofa. It was a good thing he had done so, for mere seconds after that, there was a crack and Theodore, a female-house elf dressed in a smock made out of a pillowcase, and the former's trunk appeared in the middle of the room.

Harry jumped up and screamed for his godparents, since a single glance showed that his friend was clearly in pain and had a bruise on his cheek. A second glance showed that he could barely stand and Harry immediately steadied Theodore and helped him lie, face-down, on the couch. The house-elf, Peri, looked extremely distressed and cried, "Master Theodore's father was hurting him! Please help Master Theodore!"

There were two cracks out in the hallway and seconds later, Lia burst into the living room, followed by Eric and Ellie. Ellie shooed Harry to one side and proceeded to give Theodore a Pain-Numbing Potion, followed by running a Diagnostic spell. Her eyes narrowed in anger upon reading the result and after getting his permission, she took a few pictures of his injuries for documentation purposes before continuing with the healing.

Sirius came into the room, having fed Matt and put him down for a nap. "What happened?" he demanded, taking in the scene.

" _Someone_ , I expect Mr. Nott, has beaten Theodore with a cane and hit him hard enough to give him a bruise on his cheek and more on his arms," Ellie responded, her voice tight with anger.

"My father was fed up with my refusing to turn on my friends or stop being a blood-traitor," Theo whispered. "He decided today that he was going to teach me the 'error of my ways'. He did try to hit me with some Stinging Hexes, but I was wearing my ring, so the Shield Charm on it activated and causes the hexes to bounce off. I pretended that I must have subconsciously done some magic to protect myself from spells so he wouldn't know about the ring and take it from me. When it was over, he said that he would have done the Cruciatus Curse too if it weren't for the Trace."

"The Crucy-what Curse?" Harry asked.

"Cruciatus Curse," answered Eric. "It's one of the three Unforgiveable Curses and causes extreme pain. Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters liked to use it in the war to torture people. Performing any of the three Unforgiveable Curses on a person results in an automatic sentence in Azkaban."

"Your father would have tortured you magically if he didn't have to worry about being caught, Theodore!?" Harry exclaimed in horror.

"Yes," Theodore whispered. "Harry, please don't say anything about this to our friends just yet. I'm okay with you knowing what happened to me, since you understand what it's like to be hurt like this."

"I, Harry James Potter, promise by all I hold dear to not tell our friends without your permission," Harry vowed. "Is there anything I can do to help you, Theo?"

"Just continue being my friend and give me your moral support. And would you mind becoming my foster brother? I don't want to recognize my father anymore or live with him. Mr. Sirius, you said you ran away from home and went to live with your best friend. So can I do the same?"

"Of course," said Sirius. "You're welcome to live with us."

"And we'll bring charges against Mr. Nott for child abuse and get him punished for this, if that's what you want, Theodore," Lia added. "It would keep him from getting you back, since you're still so young and unlike Sirius's parents, he could choose to still try to force you into his way of thinking."

"Please do that," Theodore replied, shuddering. "I don't want to ever go back to him, and I just know he'll punish me even more for running away."

"Then I'll get started on drawing up a case against him," Eric said. "Lia and Sirius, don't bother paying me for this. Anything related to child abuse that I take on is strictly _pro bono_. I'd give up my monthly retainer as well, but I know you'd never go for that. Theodore, would you mind if I brought Tristan into all this? You know the Fawleys have connections, so between him and Sirius, they can make sure the charges against Mr. Nott stick."

"Go ahead, Professor Vicks. Harry told the AA that your quartet helped with his situation."

"You can just call me 'Eric', or Mr. Eric if you prefer, since I'm no longer your teacher, Theodore. I was only filling in the one year and Professor Dumbledore is hiring a new Defense teacher. Now, if the rest of you would please leave, I would like to question Theodore and his house-elf in private about what happened."

The others filed out the room, with Lia and Sirius discussing moving to the Black house in Grimmauld Place, as it had even more wards than Lia's home and therefore would be safer. Harry decided to cancel plans to spend the night at the Weasleys, since he wanted to be there for Theodore and knew that Ron would sense something was wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't until the next day, when Hermione and Ron came to visit, that Theodore decided to tell the AA what happened. He wouldn't go into great detail, but merely wrote in the AA notebook that his ex-father tried to get him to see the supposed 'error of his ways', he ran away to stay with Harry's family as a result, and now Eric (with Sirius and Lia's help) was going to bring charges against Mr. Nott for child abuse. The AA responded to the news with shock and horror (plus relief that Theo was now someplace safe and his ex-father was going to be brought to justice) and Susan offered to go to her Aunt Amelia and see if her aunt could use her position as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to help Eric. After getting Eric's opinion on the matter, Theodore wrote back that Susan could talk to her aunt, but asked the AA to keep his situation quiet until matters were resolved.

"I'm amazed that you still thought of Peri in the middle of all this," Harry remarked once Theo was done writing.

Theo shrugged. "I didn't want to risk my ex-father doing something to her, even if she's technically bound to me since I inherited her after Mother's death. So I had to set her free so that she'd no longer feel any bindings to the whole Nott family. It's just a formality, since she's still going to be in my service."

"But you thought to give her scarf right after Mr. Eric finished questioning you. I don't think I could have remembered something like that in your place. When I was in a similar situation, I was more concerned with what would happen to me now that Aunt Lia had rescued me."

"Harry, it's not like you had a house-elf or anyone else to worry about," Hermione pointed out. "So of course your main concern was about yourself. Theo, I'm glad you're away from that horrid father of yours. If you need anyone to talk to, Ron and I are available."

Ron nodded. "We helped Harry after he was rescued from his aunt and uncle, so we have some idea of how to help you."

"Thank you, guys," said Theo gratefully. "Er, how have things been? Have any of you figured out why Harry's not getting any letters?"

"None of the AA or my godparents have any idea, unless someone's intercepting my post," Harry replied. "The thing is, we don't know who would do such a thing, or why. And if someone is, they were only intercepting letters sent to me directly via owl post, since I have no problems with getting the ones Justin sent via Muggle post or the ones sent to Ron and Hermione to pass on to me."

* * *

The day after that, Harry, Theo, and the Blacks moved to Grimmauld Place. Since Theo didn't need Peri to wait on him all the time, with her permission he loaned her to the Blacks to help keep house. This arrangement would continue throughout the school year, as she wasn't needed at Hogwarts either.

In the last week of July, charges were brought against Mr. Nott and he went to trial. He tried to wriggle out of the child abuse charges, but there was a record of the two charms (which had been used to levitate the cane and cause it to beat Theodore) performed near his son. There was also a record of the attempted Stinging Hexes. That, the pictures that Healer Ellie had taken, Theo's testimony (which included the fact that his father was going to force him to become a Death Eater if Voldemort ever returned to power), and the backing of Sirius, the Fawleys, and Madam Bones sealed Mr. Nott's fate. A few people in the Wizengamot, namely ones that were allied with Mr. Nott and Madam Dolores Umbridge, voted not guilty, but the majority did. He was sentenced to ten years in Azkaban, fined five hundred Galleons, custody of his son was transferred to the Blacks, and his assets were granted to Theodore, though most of it was to be held in trust until he came of age.

With Mr. Nott brought to justice, Theodore was able to relax, though the Blacks decided to stay at Grimmauld Place since it was safer and there'd be more room to host Harry's and Neville's birthday party (the two had decided to combine celebrations, since their birthdays were only a day apart). Justin was spending the week as well, since it was more convenient than having his parents bringing him all the way from their home in Devonshire the day of the party and leaving the next day.

On the morning of the thirty-first, final preparations for the party were made and by noon, all the guests had arrived. Upon seeing Ginny and Luna, Harry realized that he'd drifted apart from the two, though he still considered them friends. Then again, it was only natural the drift occurred, as he now had the AA and they had spent the last year hanging out with each other or with Colin Creevy and another Muggleborn boy in their year named Liam Stanley that Lia had visited to notify about the wizarding world.

The AA was playing some board games in the drawing room set aside for them when there was a crack and a house-elf, dressed in a ragged and dirty pillowcase and looking extremely downtrodden (especially in comparison to Peri), appeared in their midst. All of them stared in surprise as the house-elf spotted Harry and rushed over to him. "Harry Potter!" said the house-elf in a high-pitched voice. "So long as Dobby wanted to meet you, sir...Such an honor it is..."

"Th-thank you," said Harry looking bewildered. "Not to be rude, but why do you want to meet me? And who are you?"

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," responded the elf.

"I know you!" exclaimed Theo. "I saw you when I visited the Malfoys. Dobby, what are you doing here? Do the Malfoys even know you're here?"

Dobby's large eyes grew even larger as he swiveled to look at Theo. "Oh no, Dobby did not know Mister Theodore Nott was here!"

"Calm down, Dobby, I won't tell the Malfoys you're here," Theodore said gently. "And shouldn't you have some idea of where I was? You're friends with Peri."

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby and Peri have not visited for a month, sir. All Dobby knows is that Mr. Nott is in prison for hurting you and you is not living with him anymore, sir."

"All right, then why are you here, Dobby?" asked Theodore. "Just wanting to meet Harry shouldn't be enough to make you risk punishing yourself to do so."

Dobby looked around the room. "Sirs and misses must be part of the Amity Association that Dobby has heard of." The group nodded and he continued, "Harry Potter is valiant and bold, and his friends are good too. But Dobby has to protect the Association, to warn them, especially Harry Potter!"

"Warn us?" Dean said blankly. "Warn us of what? Are we in danger?"

Dobby nodded. " _Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts_. Sirs and misses should not go back too, but Harry Potter is in the most danger."

"Not go back to Hogwarts?" asked a bewildered Susan. "But it's the safest place in Britain! And we love it there!"

"No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. "Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger."

"Why?" asked Harry in surprise.

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts Scchool of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"

"What terrible things?" demanded Tracey, "Who's plotting them?"

Dobby made a funny choking noise and then hanged his head frantically against the wall. Terry, who was closest, grabbed the elf's arm to stop him. "Please, don't hurt yourself, Dobby. We get that you can't reveal family secrets. And Tracey, did you forget that he works for the Malfoys? So it's obviously the Malfoys, or at least Mr. Malfoy, that's behind whatever plot."

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking," said Tracey. "Well, if the family you work for is behind this plot, then we can tell Professor Dumbledore and have him stop it."

Dobby bowed his head. "Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, miss. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Mist-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sirs and misses" - Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper- "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't... powers no decent wizard..."And before anyone could stop him, he bounded over to the side table, seized the lamp on top of it, and started beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps.

Padma snatched the lamp away before the noise could attract the attention of the adults. "Dobby, could you please hold off on punishing yourself until you return home?" she asked, though the look on her face said that she'd rather he not punish himself at all.

"Look, Dobby, I understand your concern, but I'm going back to Hogwarts and so will my friends," said Harry. "We like it there, and now that we know that there's a plot that Mr. Malfoy is behind, we'll let Professor Dumbledore know so he can put a stop to it."

Dobby shook his head. "Harry Potter mustn't go back! Dobby hoped you wouldn't when your friends didn't write to you."

"They did write to me, I just - wait a minute, how do _you_ know that I wasn't getting direct letters from the AA?"

Dobby shuffled his feet. "Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best -"

"So you're the one that's been stopping my letters!" Harry cried angrily.

"Yes, Dobby has them here, sir," said the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry's reach, he pilled a thick wad of about two dozen envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Harry could make out a scribble that looked as though it was from Hagrid on the top one and another that he recognized as Hannah's handwriting. He presumed that he would find the rest of the AA's letters in the remainder of the pile.

Dobby blinked anxxiously up at Harry. "Harry Potter mustn't be angry...Dobby hope...if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him...Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir..."

"That's not going to work, Dobby," Harry sighed. "Three of my friends I visit constantly or they visit me, so when I wasn't getting post from the rest of the AA, they just sent their letters to them to pass on to me. Now, can I get my letters, please?"

Dobby shook his head. "Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he give Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!"

"No!" said Harry angrily, "Give me my friends letters!"

Ron reached out and grabbed Dobby by the arm. While the elf struggled in his grip, Anthony bent down and grabbed the letters, though it was a bit of struggle to pry them out of Dobby's hand. "Look, we appreciate your concern for Harry, but we're not afraid of whatever the Malfoys are planning. Professor Dumbledore will put a stop to it, and the Malfoys will be investigated."

Susan nodded. "My Auntie Amelia is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and she's not going to let Mr. Malfoy get away with whatever he's got planned. And I know Harry's godparents won't, either. Mr. Sirius will work with Professor Vicks, I mean Mr. Eric, on digging up evidence against Mr. Malfoy. So please -"

A knock on the door interrupted just then and Sirius asked, "Is everything all right? It's time for the cake and stuff." Dobby managed to pull himself out of Ron's grip and Apparated away as Sirius opened the door.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked, taking in the scene. Everybody started talking at once until he stopped the babble and asked Hermione to answer. She explained about Dobby's unexpected appearance and his warning. "That's troublesome, but I will let Professor Dumbledore know that the Malfoys are plotting something to happen at Hogwarts. Susan, it would be a good idea to let your aunt know so if any legal actions need to be taken against Lucius Malfoy, it can be done. Now, let's put the warning out of your minds for the time being so we can have Harry and Neviile's birthday cakes, all right? You guys don't want to worry Ginny, Luna, and Colin, do you?"

The AA nodded and they followed Sirius out to the dining room for the cake and refreshment portion of the party.


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you mean, Mr. Malfoy can't be charged?" Harry asked. "He's plotting something horrible to happen at Hogwarts this year!"

"Plotting something and actually carrying it are two separate things, Harry," Eric explained patiently. "For example, I could decide that I wanted to kill you, but until I actually made the attempt, I couldn't be arrested and charged with attempted murder or actual murder, depending on whether or not I succeeded in killing you. Furthermore, the only proof we have that Lucius Malfoy is plotting something is the word of Dobby, and unfortunately, it's all too easy to dismiss testimony from a house-elf since the wizarding world doesn't treat non-humans as equals."

"But something has to be done!" Harry protested. "Mr. Malfoy can't be allowed to carry out his plot!"

"Professor Dumbledore has been notified, and he and the Heads of House will keep an eye on things and do their utmost to foil any plot," Eric said.

"I don't think that's enough. What if they can't stop it? Can't the Ministry investigate the Malfoys? I mean, Mr. Weasley is working overtime on conducting raids and all, so can't he or someone else in Law Enforcement do one on the Malfoys?"

"Madam Bones has authorized one on the Malfoys, but there's no guarantee that anything suspicious will be found. Lucius got off on charges of being a Death Eater by claiming to have been Imperiused, and I have no doubt that the 'donation' he made to the Ministry ensured that he was believed. He can quite easily make sure that he avoids any trouble in this instance. If he had anything suspicious, he'll either get rid of them or hide them. And while Sirius recalls the Malfoys once mentioning to his family that they had a secret room or hiding spot in their manor, no mention was made of where it was."

"Can't Susan's aunt do something?" demanded Harry. "She's high up in the Ministry and her backing of Theo helped ensure that Mr. Nott was found guilty."

"Harry, a child abuse case and suspicion of plotting something terrible are two different things," Eric answered. "Furthermore, just because Madam Bones is Head of a pretty important Ministry Department doesn't mean she's all-powerful or can just instantly make things happen. The Malfoys have money, prestige, and connections, and will use that to their advantage. Unless Lucius is caught doing something bad red-handed, or there is sufficient evidence and credible witness testimony, like in the child abuse charges against Mr. Nott, any charges against him won't stick."

"That sucks! Why can't everyone be treated equally under the law and face the consequences no matter how much money or power they have?"

"I agree with you, Harry, but not everyone thinks like you do. This is why I became a lawyer, so that I can do my best to help those seen of lesser stature and gain justice on their behalf. And why Tristan is working in Law Enforcement and using his family connections to do same thing rather than for selfish reasons."

"Then I want to do the same," Harry declared. "I want to bring evil-doers to justice and help bring about equality for everyone. Since I'm famous, I might as well use it for good, the way Tristan is doing with his family connections."

"That's good," said Eric with a smile. "Why don't you focus on working towards that ambition and stop worrying about Dobby's warning? The appropriate adults are on their guard and will do everything in their power to foil it. Also, if anything solid does turn up linking Mr. Malfoy to the plot, I assure you that matters will be investigated as thoroughly as possible, all right?"

"Fine," replied Harry, though he still wasn't completely happy.

He took his leave and went up to his room to write in the AA notebook. Susan had just written, confirming what Eric had said about her Aunt Amelia only able to do so much about the plot. Madam Bones had given an explanation about how she wasn't all-powerful and by law there was only so much that could be done against the Malfoys. Harry wrote that Eric had given him a similar explanation and then the rest of the AA started writing back with similar sentiments to Harry's, though Hermione and Daphne acknowledged that they had suspected this sort of outcome. Justin added that even in the Muggle world, those with money and power were able to wriggle out of things, though it wasn't as bad as it had been many years ago. For example, his great-grandfather could have probably gotten away with killing a family servant, not that he would have done so, considering how morally upright and egalitarian the Finch-Fletchley family always had been.

 _"Well, we'll just have to work to change that_ ," Parvati wrote. " _We're already making a difference at Hogwarts, bringing about greater inter-house cooperation and helping to change Slytherin's bad reputation."_

 _"Yes,_ " Anthony seconded. _"Well, not all of us will turn out to be suited for a career in magical law or something similar, but we can at least try to show others that we're all for making everyone equal under the law and supporting the ones of us that will actively work to make a difference._ "

" _Definitely,_ " wrote Daphne. " _We can discuss this further in person when we meet up next Wednesday at Diagon Alley._ " Their Hogwarts letters had arrived the day before, and the AA had made sure that it was fine for them to meet up the following Wednesday to get their school supplies and celebrate Daphne's birthday. Technically, it would be an early celebration, since her birthday was actually on the following day, but her parents wanted to have a private family celebration on the actual day (as one of her uncles would definitely throw a fit over her Muggleborn friends if the AA had been invited).

" _I just wish we didn't have to buy all those Lockhart books,_ " Anthony wrote. " _Why on earth the new Defense teacher assigned them is beyond me, unless they're a fan of him like your mum is, Ron. Lockhart started Hogwarts when my parents were seventh-years, and they said what they remember of him was that he was an annoying Ravenclaw who went around telling people that he would do great things like creating a Philosopher's Stone before graduation."_

 _"Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus said the same thing,_ " Harry added. " _They were fifth-years when he started. Apparently he also said that he would captain the English Quidditch team to World Cup Glory and then settle down to be Britain's youngest Minister of Magic. He also sent himself hundreds of valentines one Valentine's Day and carved his name in giant letters on the Quidditch pitch._ "

" _Gilderoy_ _Lockhart really did that?"_ Hermione asked, no doubt incredulous.

" _Yeah. Oh, and Aunt Lia and her friends started Hogwarts when he was a sixth-year, and they said that was the year he made a giant magical hologram of his face. Uncle Remus said that Lockhart also asked Dumbledore if a school newspaper could be set up and Uncle Sirius bets Lockhart only asked because he wanted to see his name in print."_

 _"So how did wanting to become a famous Quidditch player and Minister of Magic lead to Lockhart's career off fighting Dark creatures and beings and writing popular books about his exploits_?" Dean asked.

" _He probably realized that his other ambitions weren't achievable and decided to go for something else to make him famous,_ " responded Tracey. " _Look, at least his books do explain how to fight Dark creatures and stuff. My only complaint is that his books aren't exactly cheap."_

Harry knew that was true, and was silently grateful that Sirius had insisted on giving the Weasleys a fifth of his recompense money for their help in Harry's situation (and probably also to make up for Scabbers aka Peter Pettigrew being discovered in their family). Otherwise it would no doubt be something of a struggle for them to pay for five sets of Lockhart books _and_ Ginny's school supplies, even if most of the latter could be gotten second-hand.

" _Well, let's just hope they'll be worth the cost_ ," replied Justin. " _Oh, my parents said all of you are welcome to visit for a few days. Just let me know the dates so we can make sure the guest rooms are ready. Harry and Theo, you're especially welcome, since I spent the week visiting you and my parents wish to return the favor."_

The rest of the AA wrote back saying that they'd ask their parents/guardians for permission and then they ended the written conversation.

* * *

Wednesday came and right after breakfast, Harry, Theo, Lia, and Sirius Flooed to Diagon Alley (Remus had volunteered to baby-sit his godson). Unfortunately, Theo accidentally inhaled a bit of ash when saying his destination and he wound up in Knockturn Alley instead, specifically in the shop of Borgin and Burkes. He was about to leave, but spotted Draco Malfoy and his father headed that way. Not wishing to have a run-in with the Malfoys, especially as he'd heard that Mr. Malfoy had attempted, or at least volunteered, to gain custody of him, he ducked into a nearby cabinet, but remembering _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ (Harry had lent him the _Chronicles of Narnia_ to read), he didn't shut the door all the way, leaving it open just a crack.

Seconds later, a bell clanged and Draco stepped into the shop, with his father behind him. Mr. Malfoy crossed the shop, his cold, gray eyes looking around at the items on display and rang a bell on the counter before turning to his son and saying, "Touch nothing, Draco."

Draco, who had reached for a staring glass eyes, said, "I thought you were going to buy me a present."

"I said I would buy you a racing broom," said his father, drumming his fingers on the counter.

"What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" asked Draco, looking sulky and bad-tempered. "Harry Potter said his godfather got him a Nimbus Two Thousand for his birthday last year and Flint was ready to give him the spot of reserve Seeker. Potter might have turned it down, but Flint told him that he wanted him as Seeker this year. It's not like Potter's any good, it's just because he somehow tricked half of Slytherin to follow him and is _famous_...famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead..." He bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls and continued, "...everyone thinks he's so _smart_ , wonderful _Potter_ with his _scar_ and his _stupid group of friends_ that are just ruining Hogwarts, and Slytherin in part-"

"You have told me this at least a dozen times already," Mr, Malfoy interrupted with a quelling look at his son. "And I would remind you that it is not- prudent- to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when his most of our kind regard him as the hero that made the Dark Lord disappear and his godfather is- ah, Mr. Borgin.'

A stooping man had appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy hair back from his face. "Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again," said Mr. Borgin in a voice as oily as his hair. "Delighted- and young Mr. Malfoy, too- charmed. How may I be of assistance? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced-"

Mr. Malfoy interrupted, saying that he was selling, not buying. Mr. Borgin's smile faded slightly and Mr. Malfoy, handing over a roll of parchment, quickly explained that due to the many raids that the Ministry was conducting, one of which was to be on his home that weekend, he had to get rid of a few items in his possession that might cause embarrassment. Thanks to the new Muggle Protection Act (which Mr. Malfoy said Mr. Weasley was no doubt behind, while insulting the other wizard at the the same time, to Theo's anger), certain poisons at the Malfoy home needed to be disposed of.

While Mr. Borgin was reading the list, Draco interrupted, "Can I have _that_?" pointing at a withered hand on its cushion.

The storeowner scurried over to Draco and began explaining that it was the Hand of Glory. He finished off by saying, "Your son has fine taste," at which point Mr. Malfoy coldly said that he hoped that his son would amount to more than a thief or plunderer.

Mr. Borgin immediately apologized, though Mr. Malfoy interjected, more coldly still, "Though if his grades don't pick up, that may be all he is fit for-"

"It's not my fault," retorted Draco. "The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger-"

"I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam," snapped Mr. Malfoy. "Even Harry Potter did better than you in most of them, and _he_ was raised in the Muggle world until his godfather adopted him."

Theo stifled a chuckle,pleased to see Draco look both abashed and angry. Mr. Malfoy returned to his business for visiting the store, haggling with Mr. Borgin over his list. Draco examined the objects for sale, drawing nearer and nearer to the cabinet. He paused to examine a long coil of hangman's rope and to read, smirking, the card propped on a magnificent necklace of opals, _Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed - Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date._ He then turned away and saw the cabinet right in front of him. He walked forward and stretched out his hand for the handle, but luckily his father concluded the haggling just then and told him to leave now.

Once Mr. Borgin had disappeared into the back room, Theo waited a minute to make sure he wouldn't come back and then quietly slipped out of the cabinet and out the front door. Theo had been to Knockturn Alley once, when his ex-father had decided to visit the street during the trip to get his Hogwarts supplies. Therefore, he had a pretty good idea of how to get back to Diagon Alley. However, he had only taken a few steps he heard some shout.

"THEODORE! What d'ye think yer doing' down there?"

Theo turned to see Hagrid striding towards him, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard. Relieved to see the gameskeeper, since Knockturn Alley wasn't completely safe for an obvious minor alone during the day (and doubly more so at night), he hurried over. "Sorry, Hagrid, but I inhaled some ash when Flooing over and accidentally ended up here. I was making my way back to Diagon Alley when you spotted me. Why are you here?"

"I was lookin' for a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent," responded Hagrid. "They're ruinin' the school cabbages. Were yeh with Harry an' the Blacks?"

Theo nodded as the two of them left Knockturn Alley and turned onto Diagon Alley, where Gringotts Bank could be seen in the distance. "Harry and I were going to meet up with the rest of the AA and get our school supplies and celebrate Daphne's birthday. It's actually tomorrow, but her parents wanted to have a private family gathering tomorrow, so that's why we're celebrating it today."

"That's mighty nice," said Hagrid, beaming. "If I see Daphne, I'll have ter wish her a happy birthday an' get her a little somethin' fer a present."

"Theo! Theo! Over here!" Theo looked up to see Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and a worried Harry standing at the top of the white flight of stairs to Gringotts. The four ran down to meet them. They quickly said hello to Hagrid and then immediately focused their attention on Theo, asking what happened to him. Before he could reply, Sirius and Lia sprinted up the street, with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ron, Percy, and the twins behind them. Obviously the Weasley must have arrived at about the same time that the Blacks did, and after finding out Theo hadn't come out the proper grate, the two families had gone looking for him.

"Oh, thank God you're all right, Theo!" gasped Lia, looking relieved. "What happened to you?"

Theo explained about accidentally ending up in Knockturn Alley, having to hide in a cabinet at Borgin and Burkes while Mr. Malfoy, who had brought Draco along, conducted business with Mr. Borgin, and then running into Hagrid while making his way to Diagon Alley. Mrs. Weasley pulled out a large clothes brush from her handbag and proceeded to beat the soot off Theo's clothes, while Lia and Sirius thanked Hagrid for finding Theo. The gameskeeper waved away the thanks and then strode off to finish his errand and get a birthday present for Daphne.

When Mr. Weasley heard that Mr. Malfoy was selling, not buying, he raised a brow. "Good, he's worried, but that means we won't find find much of anything during the raid. You said Mr. Borgin was going to pick up the items he bought tomorrow, Theodore?" At Theo's nod, Mr. Weasley sighed. "It's too late to get the raid moved to today. Plus his selling items of a dubious nature to a store like Borgin and Burkes isn't exactly illegal."

"Well, I'm sure Malfoy will get his due eventually," said Lia. "Now, let's go take care of our business at Gringotts." She and Sirius led Harry and Theo into the bank and down to the Black family vault to withdraw money. After that, the two preteens were allowed to stop at their own trust vaults to withdraw some spending money, but the adults had made it clear that while they had custody, they were paying for all the necessities like good parents ought to do.

By the time they were done with that, the Greengrasses, Finch-Fletchleys, Longbottoms, Goldsteins, and Terry (his parents had been able to take time off work but gave permission for him to go on his own since his friends' parents would be there) had arrived. So had the Creevys and Stanleys, and Lia went over to help the two families get their pounds exchanged for Galleons at the exchange counter, while Liam (who had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and glasses) and Colin greeted Ginny and Luna.

The rest of the AA turned up with their families within the next ten minutes, though in the case of the Patil twins, only their mother had been able to come as their father hadn't been able to get off work. It was quickly decided which of the parents/guardians would come along to supervise and then the AA set off with Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein, Madam Bones, Mr. Greengrass, and Mrs. Patil. Sirius decided to buy everyone an ice cream cone, and as it was Daphne's birthday, Mr. Greengrass insisted on paying for half of them. After that, as the AA enjoyed their ice cream, they bought refills on the ingredients for their potion kits, more parchment and ink, and browsed through some other shops.

After a look around Quality Quidditch Supplies, the group headed for Flourish and Blotts for their textbooks. However, when they arrived, they saw that the bookshop was extremely noisy and crowded, with many people jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. A large banner was stretched across the upper windows, proclaiming that Gilderoy Lockhart was signing copies of his autobiography from 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. that day, explaining the crowd.

The AA exchanged annoyed looks, since after hearing how Lockhart was like when he'd been at Hogwarts had turned them off the man. Sure, he may have done some thrilling deeds and wrote books about it all, but bragging and doing things solely to gain attention wasn't something the AA approved of. It took awhile to squeeze through the crowd of people (mostly witches that were Mrs. Weasley's and Madam Bones's age) into the shop, where a long line wound right to the back, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were standing near the front of the line, accompanied by Percy and the twins. Way off to the side, the four first years, Colin's and Liam's families, Dean's family, the Grangers and Finch-Fletchleys, and Lia were clustered together. The first-years were picking out their books and their younger siblings examined the books available for sale, while the adults were talking.

The AA made their way over and picked up copies of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ and then went to seek out the Lockhart books. On the way, an irritable-looking man who was taking photos snarled at them, or more specially at Ron, Susan, Anthony, and Tracey, to move out of the way, as his work was for the _Daily Prophet_.

"Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it, while Susan straightened her clothes, which had gotten mussed a bit with the guy shoving his way through.

Lockhart heard Ron and looked up. He saw the AA, who were all looking annoyed at how the photographer had been acting, and then his eyes rested on Harry. He stared. Then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It _can't_ be Harry Potter!"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front before any of the AA could react. The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as Lockhart shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the AA.

"Nice big smile, Harry," Lockhart said, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, you and I are worth the front page."

When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry could hardly feel his fingers. He tried to sidle back over to his friends, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side. He proceeded to make an announcement about how he was going to take up the post of Defense teacher at Hogwarts the coming school year, but before he could finish, a very irate (and in Sirius's case, angry) Lia and Sirius had fought their way through the crowd and interrupted.

"Get your hands off Harry!" Lia snapped. "You do not have permission to use him to bolster your fame and give you more publicity!"

Lockhart blinked and asked, "I'm sorry, but who are you to decide as to how I welcome Harry?"

"We're Sirius and Cornelia Black, his _godparents_!" Sirius retorted. "So as Harry's guardians, we have every right to decide things on Harry's behalf."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I upset you, but I had no intention of using Harry to 'bolster my fame'," apologized Lockhart. "I just wanted to welcome him and announce my news. Here, you can have my books too, free of charge." Sirius, Lia, and Harry found themselves each presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart.

Sirius thrust them into the cauldron that Colin was holding and snapped, "I don't believe any of that, Lockhart. Remember, I was at Hogwarts the same time you were, at least for your first three years, and you were full of yourself then too. I don't think you've changed at all."

"What do you mean, Mr. Black?" asked Lockhart, whose cheery smile had faltered.

"You acted like everyone ought to know who you were and see that you were great and powerful! When that didn't happen, you annoyed everyone with your behavior. Does telling everyone that you'd create a Philsopher's Stone, captain the English team to World Cup glory, and becoming the youngest Minister of Magic ring a bell?"

Lockhart blinked, then turned pale. Lia continued, "What about carving your name onto the Quidditch pitch, sending yourself hundred of valentines, and creating a magical hologram of your face? I was only present for that last one, since I started Hogwarts in your sixth year, but my husband and his friend told me about the other two events. Really, if you were so attention-seeking back at Hogwarts, what's stopping you from doing the same now?"

Lockhart sputtered, but couldn't seem to come up with a response. Harry snickered as he joined his godparents. "Well, at least we don't have to pay for your Lockhart books, Harry," said Lia. "Since I don't need or want the ones he gave me, I'll give them to..." She looked around the shop and handed over her set to Ginny, who thanked her and put them in her new cauldron.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" asked a voice that Harry had no trouble recognizing. He straightened and found himself face-to-face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer. " _Famous_ Harry Potter. Can't even go into a _bookshop_ without making the front page and getting his godparents involved."

"Shut up, Malfoy, it's not like Harry wanted any of that!" Daphne snapped as the AA made their way over. "And if you're so jealous, why don't you get your parents killed by You-Know-Who and a scar on your forehead so that you can be famous and noticed by everyone else?"

"Greengrass, are you Potter's girlfriend now or something?" Draco asked. "And I'm not jealous or want the fame! Even if I did, I wouldn't want my parents to be killed, by You-Know-Who or anyone else!"

Daphne ignored the question and retorted, "Do you think Harry wanted _his_ parents to be killed just so he could be famous? So why don't you shut your big fat mouth and leave him alone!"

Draco stared at her, then laughed and said, "Greengrass, looks like you _are_ Potter's girlfriend! I can't believe you'd pick him! Or are you just with him for the fame?"

"That is enough, Draco Malfoy!" Mr. Greengrass snapped. "Even if my daughter were old enough to date, it is none of your business as to who she decides to be with. Furthermore, she, nor anyone else in the family, would ever date something purely for fame! Where is your father? I would like to speak with him about your behavior."

Just then, Lucius Malfoy appeared, a hand on his son's shoulder, sneering in the same way. "Well, well, Perseus Greengrass, what is the matter?"

"Your son's behavior is getting out of hand, Lucius! Has he not been taught any manners? Lydia and I have both made sure that Daphne and Astoria know how to behave properly and to not be rude or insulting to others. Yes, I admit that Daphne could have been politer to Draco, but she _was_ standing up for a friend and then further provoked, so her rudeness is understandable. Draco's behavior, on the other hand, is not."

"I don't see how my son's behavior is any of your business, Perseus," Mr. Malfoy said coldly.

"It is when he's rude to my daughter!" Mr. Greengrass retorted. "So see to it that you teach him proper manners, or I will no longer support your agenda. In fact..." He looked over at Sirius, then continued, "I think I would be better off allying myself with Mr. Black. He has made sure that his godson knows how to behave properly, and I find most of his views to be more to my liking."

"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying over to the AA and then their parents, "you find more than just Black's views to be to your liking. You also like the company he keeps, and that of your daughter's as well. I can't believe you would let her or yourself sink so low."

Mr. Greengrass, his eyes flashing with anger, instantly has his wand in his hand. There was a thud as Mr. Malfoy, who was hit with a spell, flew backward. He knocked over Ginny's cauldron in the process, scattering the books inside on the ground, and hit a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down, while Mrs. Greengrass left Astoria's side to stand by her husband and shriek, "Stop, Perseus! Lucius is not worth it!"

Mr. Malfoy managed to fumble out his wand and would have retaliated with a spell, but Madam Bones stepped in. "THAT IS ENOUGH!" she thundered. "There will be no dueling, especially not in a public place! Mr. Greengrass, since you were provoked, I will let you off with a warning, but if you persist in attacking, outside of a sanctioned duel, I will have to charge you with assault. Mr. Malfoy, you will stop provoking others and try to keep your rude comments to yourself."

Mr. Malfoy glared at her, then at Mr. Greengrass, but nodded curtly. He tried to get up, but tripped over Ginny's cauldron. Shoving the cauldron and her spilled books out of his way, he managed to get to his feet without another mishap, and then beckoned to Draco and swept out the shop.

Mrs. Greengrass immediately began scolding her husband for almost causing a duel and ruining Daphne's birthday celebration, even if he had been provoked. Mr. Greengrass brushed it off, saying that Malfoy deserved it, but did apologize to Madam Bones for the ruckus and Daphne for upsetting things. His daughter declared that things hadn't been ruined at all and that she was rather impressed with him deciding to ally with Sirius Black and standing up for himself.

"Thank you, Daphne, but perhaps it is best that you don't copy my way of doing it. Yes, Lucius deserved it, but it's still not proper." Mr. Greengrass handed over some Galleons to the bookshop assistant to pay for any damages, and then everyone gathered up their books and paid.

Once at the Leaky Cauldron, the AA went off to the private room that the Greengrasses had reserved for Daphne's birthday celebration. The adults, with the exception of the Greengrasses, who were supervising, settled down in the main room for lunch. The Creevys, Stanleys, and Lovegoods stayed for lunch as well, but they left when they finished eating.


	4. Chapter 4

The AA visited Justin during the third week of August. The Finch-Fletchleys owned an estate in Devon, complete with a large manor house. The AA spent much of the time exploring the grounds, going down to the village, and learning about the history of the family. There was one bit of scandal, which most likely explained where Justin had gotten his magical ability from. Apparently, four generations back, the heir of the family at the time had fallen in love and fathered a child with one of the village maidens, who had gone away to school and whose family was known to be strange. He had married the girl in question, partly because he didn't care about their differences social-class wise and partly to avoid having an illegitimate son. His parents, while egalitarian, hadn't really approved, but considering the First World War was going on and he had enlisted as an officer, was relieved that he'd married someone at all and produced an heir, especially as he'd ended up dying in the war.

The night before the school year was due to start, Theodore went into Harry's room. "Can we talk, Harry?"

"Sure, Theo," said Harry, placing a bookmark in _Mariel of Redwall_ and putting the book on the dresser. "What's up?"

Theo sat down on the other bed (which Ron had used back during the Christmas holidays). "I'm a little worried. What if I have nightmares about what my ex-father did to me while at Hogwarts? Healer Vicks gave me some Dreamless Sleep Potion, but I can't take it every night since taking it too often can lead to addiction or other side effects."

"Have you been having nightmares?" Harry asked, worried. "Well, besides the one that you had the first night after running away to us."

"I had one the night after the trial," answered Theo. "Sirius helped me recover from it and I asked him not to mention it to you. Or Justin, since he was visiting then."

"You could have said something to me earlier, Theo," said Harry. "I told you that I had many nightmares about my relatives during my first year after being rescued."

"I didn't want to bother you then. Besides, Healer Vicks has been giving me twice-weekly mind-healing sessions, so I'm getting over what happened. I'm just worried that I could get more nightmares and the last thing I want is having our dormmates finding out about it."

"Ah. I guess we could put a Silencing Charm on your bed-curtains so if you have a nightmare, our dormmates won't hear anything. And I could ask Uncle Sirius to magic something to alert me if you do have a nightmare, so I can wake you up from it and help you."

"That's a good idea," said Theo. "I don't think I'm likely to get many nightmares, since what happened to me wasn't as horrible as what you had to go through, but-."

"Theo, just because you were only treated horribly the one time doesn't mean you suffered," Harry interrupted sternly. "Besides, if you hadn't run away immediately after and got the courts to give Aunt Lia and Uncle Sirius custody of you, your ex-father would probably have continued to abuse you in an attempt to get you to turn back to his way of thinking. Furthermore, my time with my relatives could have been even worse."

"Even worse? What do you mean?"

"Aunt Lia has dealt with or heard of even worse cases of child abuse throughout the course of her job," Harry answered flatly. "There have been kids that got even less to eat than I did, to the point that it was a miracle that they hadn't died of starvation already. Or ones that were beaten to the point of having broken bones. Or ones that weren't being beaten or starved, but underwent being inappropriately touched, or worse. You remember the talk that Uncle Sirius gave us about reaching puberty."

Theo shuddered. "You're right. Thank Merlin you didn't have to undergo any of that, Harry." He then remembered something he'd read once. "And it's a good thing your relatives hadn't made it clear that they held your magic against you, or could have turned into, I think the term was Obscurial? Basically it's a magical kid that tries to suppress their magic and ends up creating this dark force inside them that they can't control and will lash out with magic whenever they're really emotional. The book that I read said that Obscurials normally die by the age of ten or so. It also said they were more common back when Muggles were hunting witches and wizards."

"I think Aunt Lia referred to that once," Harry said thoughtfully. "The day that she rescued me, she yelled at my relatives for trying to 'stamp the magic out of me', stating that it couldn't be done and that all it would have achieved, if they'd damaged me enough mentally, was to make me lose control and have my powers breaking out randomly. Lucky for me, they didn't even give me a hint that magic was real, or make it clear that the accidental magic they punished me for was something I should be afraid of or try to keep from happening. At the time, I just thought weird things sometimes happened and my relatives didn't like it. Anyway, let's go to Uncle Sirius now so he can magic something to alert me if you do end up having a nightmare while we're at school."

After the situation was explained, Sirius added a spell to the Shield-Charmed ring that the AA had given Harry for his birthday and another on Theo's ring and linked the two. So long as they were both wearing the rings, then if Theo were to have a nightmare, his ring would register it and 'send' some kind of signal to Harry's ring, which would turn warm and create a mild shock, enough to wake Harry up but not hurt him in any way.

* * *

The next day, after breakfast, Harry and Theo made sure that they were all packed for Hogwarts. Remus arrived, for he was baby-sitting Matt while Sirius and Lia were going to see the two boys off at the station, and wished the two well for their second-year at Hogwarts. The family set off for King's Cross Station and while there was some traffic, was able to arrive a quarter to eleven. Five minutes passed as Harry and Theo got trolleys for their trunks and they headed for the platform.

However, when the two headed for the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten, they and the trolleys ended up crashing into it, instead of the usual of them passing through onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Sirius helped the two up and made some excuse to the nearby Muggles that took notice by claiming that they'd been having a bit of a race and lost control of the trolleys. Lia examined the barrier for a moment and then said, "Harry, try to enter now."

Harry gently tried to push his trolley at the barrier, Lia holding on to his arm, but it was still solid. "That's odd," she said. "Why isn't it letting us through?"

At this point, the Patils arrived. Lia and Sirius explained about the barrier not working. Padma stuck out her arm and found that she could put her hand through it, but when she tried to go through with Harry, the barrier was blocked again. The adults were wondering if there was something wrong with the spells on the barrier when the Finch-Fletchleys turned up and had to have the situation explained to them. Muggles couldn't get onto the platform unless they were accompanied by a witch or wizard, but since it appeared that no-one could get through the barrier at the moment, that didn't matter.

By now, it was five minutes to eleven and the entire Weasley family showed up, apparently running late. Mrs. Weasley was apparently too preoccupied to really notice the crowd, for she helped Ginny push her trolley towards the barrier. To the others' amazement, the two of them actually got through.

"I guess the spells are working again!" exclaimed Sirius. "Harry and Theo, hurry up onto the Platform, and then the rest of you do the same."

However, when Harry and Theo tried again, they couldn't get through the barrier. "Is something preventing just us from going through the Platform?" Harry asked, while Sirius and Mr. Patil explained to the rest of the Weasleys about the barrier somehow not working,

"I don't know," said Sirius thoughtfully. He patted the barrier at various intervals, finding it completely solid. Meanwhile, Mr. Weasley cast a small spell so that Muggles (besides Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley) wouldn't take notice of their group or their odd behavior.

The other adult wizards took turns examining the barrier and found it solid as well. When they finished, the nearest station clock showed that it was eleven o'clock, the time that the Hogwarts Express pulled out the station. "Darn it, we've missed the train!" Theo exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you guys, you'll still get to Hogwarts," said Mrs. Patil. "There are other ways to get there besides the Hogwarts Express."

Lia nodded. "There's always the Knight Bus, or we can head over to the Leaky Cauldron or Sirius and my home to Floo over to Hogsmeade." She quickly explained to the Finch-Fletchleys about the Knight Bus, Floo Network, and that Hogsmeade was the all-wizarding village next to Hogwarts.

"The Knight Bus isn't all that comfortable a ride, especially as I think Ernie is still the driver," said Sirius, making a face. "I rode it once to the Potters' house when I ran away from my family and I didn't like it. Using the Floo would be better, not to mention that it doesn't cost you anything except the price of Floo Powder."

"Fine then, we'll use the Floo Network," said Lia. "Dad, you might want to Apparate onto the Platform to tell Mum what happened so she won't worry. Meet us at the Leaky Cauldron, okay?"

Mr. Weasley nodded and did as suggested. Harry volunteered Hedwig so that they could send a letter to Professor Dumbledore telling him what happened, and Padma and Parvati offered to send their owl out after the Hogwarts Express with a note so that the rest of the AA wouldn't wonder why six of them weren't on the train. The letters were quickly written and sent off and the group headed for the Leaky Cauldron, where they meet Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Once there, Sirius sent another message to Professor Dumbledore, this time via his Patronus, so that a staff member could be sent down to Hogsmeade to meet the nine students, and a second one to Remus.

The group decided that they might as well have lunch first, and once they finished eating, got ready to Floo. Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley bid their son good-bye and then Lia helped Justin with Flooing over to the Three Broomsticks pub in Hogsmeade. The other students followed, with Sirius, Mrs. Patil, and Mr. Weasley accompanying.

Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were the teachers waiting to meet the students. The adults present further explained to the two Heads about the barrier being blocked for some reason. Good-byes were said and then the adults Flooed back or Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron, while Professors McGonagall and Flitwick escorted the group of students to Hogwarts. On the way, they pointed out the shops that they passed, and informed the second-years that they would be able to visit the village during certain weekends throughout the school year once they were in third year, providing their parents/guardians signed the permission slip for them to do so.

Once inside the Entrance Hall, Professor McGonagall said, "I suggest you all go to your common rooms and get settled in your dorm rooms. When you've finished, you have permission to visit the library, or in the case of those of you that are part of the Amity Association, visit with Hagrid or meet up in whatever empty room you normally spend time in. Just make sure that you show up at the Great Hall in time for the Welcoming Feast tonight."

The six members of the AA elected to visit Hagrid once they'd put their trunks in their rooms and changed into their school robes. The gamekeeper was quite happy to see them, though surprised, and when they explained about the barrier somehow not letting them through (though it did let in Mrs. Weasley and Ginny), he was just as puzzled as they were.

"I never heard o' th' barrier not workin' at all before," Hagrid said. "Maybe th' spells on it did go wonky for some reason."

"But how did it work for Mum and Ginny?" Ron asked. "That's what isn't making sense."

"You know, Dobby really didn't us returning to Hogwarts," Padma pointed out. "Well, to be more accurate, it was Harry that he didn't want returning to Hogwarts, even if he did say that he had to warn the entire Association. Maybe he did something to the barrier to try and keep Harry from returning to Hogwarts."

"You know, that makes sense," said Justin. "We just couldn't get on the Platform either because we were with Harry. Dobby could have removed whatever he did so that your mother and sister could go through, Ron, but put it back up right away to keep Harry from going. I bet if any of us tried to go through right after, we could have, but as soon as Harry made the attempt, he'd have been blocked."

"Well, if that's true, then Dobby _really_ didn't want me coming back," Harry said. "Too bad for him that there's other ways to get to Hogwarts. And even if he somehow kept the Floo Network or the Knight Bus from working, I bet Uncle Sirius or Aunt Lia could have Apparated me to Hogsmeade, or asked the Ministry to provide us with a Portkey."

Parvati and Theo then took turns explaining to Hagrid who Dobby was and the warning that the house-elf had given them during Harry's birthday party. "Ah, so tha's why you had me send Harry's letters ter Ron an' Hermione an' why they were sendin' on his replies," said Hagrid. "An' why Professor Dumbledore asked us all to be extra careful durin' our staff meetin' this mornin'."

The group had moved on to other subjects and were outside being shown the pumpkins that Hagrid was growing for the Halloween feast when Parvati and Padma's owl turned up, a rolled up note tied to one leg. "Thank you, Lakshmi," said Padma, removing the note while Parvati gently stroked the owl's brown and white feathers.

Lakshmi the owl hooted in reply and then flew off towards the Owlery. The note turned out to be written by Hermione (though signed by the rest of the AA).

" _We got the note about the barrier not working for you guys, though it is odd that Ginny and Mrs. Weasley got through. It's a good thing that there's other ways to get to Hogwarts, like the Floo Network. Anthony suggests that maybe Dobby has something to do with it, since he really didn't want you, Harry, returning to Hogwarts. The rest of us think that he (Anthony) has a point, so maybe it's something Sirius and Lia could look into. Neville's gone to tell Ginny what happened, so she doesn't worry about why none of her brothers are on the train. She's sitting with Luna, Colin, and Liam in the next compartment and it looks like they're really engrossed with some book or other. Anyway, we'll see you all at the feast tonight and if you can go down to visit Hagrid, pass on our greetings._ "

"Well, if the rest of the AA think that Dobby might have something to do with the barrier not working too, then I'd better let Uncle Sirius know," said Harry. He took out his two-way mirror from his pocket and called Sirius, who said that he and Lia had thought of the same thing and were working with Professor Dumbledore to investigate the matter.

"Be careful, Harry," Sirius added. "Lia thinks that it's possible that Dobby could try something else to get you sent home, since the attempt to stop you with the barrier not working failed. So you and your friends be on your guard, okay?"

"We'll do that, Uncle Sirius," promised Harry. The two then ended the connection.

A couple hours later, it grew dark. Hagrid left to meet the new first-years at the station and the six second-years headed up to the castle. Professor McGonagall meet them at the door and gestured them into the Great Hall, where they found seats at their respective house tables. The staff members filed in and took seats at the head table, and about twenty minutes later, the students began walking into the Great Hall.

Draco Malfoy didn't sit down right away, instead pausing by Theo and Harry and asking, "Where were you two? And the Patil Twins, the Weasel, and that Mudblood from Hufflepuff that're also part of your loser group? Why weren't you six on the train?"

"Don't use that term for Justin, or call Ron that!" Daphne snapped, sliding into the seat next to Theo. "Furthermore, it's none of your business why they weren't on the train, and we didn't ask you to poke your nose in our compartment anyway."

"Oh, Greengrass, are you their girlfriend now in addition to being Potter's?" asked Malfoy, sounding falsely surprised.

"Malfoy, what is up with you accusing Daphne of being the girlfriend of every person she defends?" Tracey asked. "Do _you_ wish to date her and decided to make baseless accusations because you know she'd never give you the time of day?"

Malfoy sputtered at this, then finally retorted, "Like I would ever want to date a blood traitor!" before taking a seat at the end of the table, as far away from them as possible.

"Well, that got rid of him for the time being," Tracey said, while Daphne giggled and Theo and Harry sniggered at Malfoy's reaction.

Once everyone had settled down in seats, Professor McGonagall brought the first-years in. Harry spotted Ginny, Luna, Colin, and Liam in the middle of the line. Colin looked very excited and eager, while the other three gazed around the Great Hall with varying levels of awe. The Sorting Hat began singing a song about the four founders and their houses and when it finished, Professor McGonagall started the Sorting.

Colin Creevy was the fourth person to be called up. He ran up to the stool and eagerly placed the Sorting Hat on his head, which fell down almost to his shoulders since he was so small. A few seconds later, it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Colin jumped off the stool and, pushing the Hat up so that he could see, dashed over to the Gryffindor table. Percy stopped him before he could sit down and reminded him to return the Hat.

"Sorry, I was so excited to be in Gryffindor that I forgot!" Colin exclaimed, and amid gales of laughter, ran back to the stool to give it to Patricia Daniels.

Luna sat on the stool for over a minute before she was finally declared a Ravenclaw. Harry, who could see some Gryffindor qualities in her, figured that the Sorting Hat had seen the same and needed some time to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Hermione and Padma shifted over a bit to make room for Luna to sit next to them and the Ravenclaw members of the AA welcomed her to their house.

The Sorting progressed, with Liam Stanley joining Luna in Ravenclaw. Unlike hers, the Sorting Hat made the decision almost instantly. Ginny was the last one to be called up, and like the rest of her family, was sorted into Gryffindor. Professor McGonagall rolled up the list and took the Sorting Hat and stool out of the Great Hall. When she returned, Professor Dumbledore stood up and welcomed everyone, starting the feast.

At the Slytherin table, the prefects told the first-years about working to improve their house's reputation and at least tolerating those of non-pureblood parentage. The first-years digested this along with their dinner, and by the time dessert arrived, had all expressed the desire to go along with it.

"Let's just hope Professor Dumbledore doesn't do any of that 'no house winning' again this year," said Gemma Farley. "I'm all for inter-house cooperation, but I would like a clear winner for the House Cup and not make our efforts to win points pointless. Oh, no pun intended. I don't blame the Amity Assocciation, of course," she directed at Harry, Daphne, Tracey, and Theo. "You didn't ask Dumbledore to award your group points that made it so that all houses were tied."

"You should," Malfoy grumbled. "If it weren't for them, Dumbledore wouldn't have thought to award those points in the first place."

"I didn't see you complaining at the ending feast, Malfoy," Flint said. "In fact, you seemed happy that Gryffindor was no longer the clear winner of the House Cup."

Malfoy turned pink and focused his attention on the apple pie and ice cream he was eating.

When dessert was over, Professor Dumbledore stood up again, this time to make the requisite announcements. He introduced Gilderoy Lockhart as the new Defense teacher. Harry noticed that the rest of the staff didn't look particularly happy about this, other than one witch that he assumed was the Muggle Studies teacher, since he'd heard that Quirrell had been teaching that class until he'd taken off two years ago for practical experience in order to become the Defense instructor. Of the students, it was mostly the girls that greeted the news with any excitement, though a few of younger male students seemed to have been taken in by Lockhart.

When the announcements were over, there was the singing of the school song and then everyone was dismissed for bed.

Author's Note: I decided that Padma and Parvati Patil named their female owl Lakshmi, after a Hindu goddess with some association with owls. Since Dobby is determined that Harry not return to Hogwarts, he would still try to prevent it by keeping the barrier from working. Dobby's main goal is to keep Harry away from Hogwarts, so he lifted whatever blocking spell to let people other Harry through, but as soon as he tried again, immediately replaced it. After that, rather than keep removing and replacing the spell, he just left it in place until Harry left the station.


	5. Chapter 5

Somehow news about the barrier being closed leaked, for the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ was devoted to an article about it the next day. Luckily, the theory that Dobby had been behind it to prevent Harry from getting to Hogwarts was still secret, but that was the only good news. As neither the headmaster or the Heads of house would have said anything to the newspaper, and Harry was sure that his godparents nor the parents of those of his friends that had been affected by the barrier not working wouldn't have either, the news must have leaked out some other way.

Finally Terry pointed out that the barrier blockage would have prevented some parents from leaving Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, at least until Harry and company had left for the Leaky Cauldron, and that some of them had to have said something. After all, a couple of them had been cited in the article, giving statements on what they had felt at the time.

"The important thing is that nobody, outside of us, Professor Dumbledore, and a few trusted adults, like Professor, I mean, Mr. Vicks, and your godparents have any idea as to why the barrier was closed, Harry," Daphne said firmly (after making sure that nobody else at the Ravenclaw table was paying attention to the AA). "We certainly don't want Dobby to get in trouble for warning us about potential evil plots happening at Hogwarts this year."

"I just wish we knew what the plot could be," Harry sighed. "If only-"

Slightly further down the table, a loud voice interrupted him. " _Your_ father is the editor of _The Quibbler_? Well, that explains a few things. No wonder you're so - so - loony!"

"Hey, that's perfect!" another voice said, this one sounding male. "She's Loony Lovegood!"

"Don't call Luna that!" snapped a third voice, this one sounding like Liam's. "She's _not_ loony!"

"Oh, are you Loony's boyfriend or something, Stanley?" asked the first person, a girl. "Is that why you're defending a weird girl like her? Or are you just as loony as she is?"

"We're standing up for Luna because she's our _friend_!" retorted Ginny. "So leave her alone!"

"Yeah, we like her and she's a great friend," Colin added. "So we'll defend her if anyone makes fun of her."

The boy snorted. "I don't see why you're friends with such a weird person unless you're just as weird as her. And why are you two even here at our table instead of over at the Gryffindor table with the rest of your house?"

"That's enough!" snapped Parvati, causing the two first-years that were making fun of Luna to swivel their heads in the direction of the AA. "Luna's a perfectly lovely person and ought not to be teased. And there's no school rule that says that we have to sit at our own house tables outside of the Welcoming and Leaving Feasts.""

Anthony (who was sitting next to Ginny and Liam), leaned over slightly. "The two of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for making fun of others. You're Darren Twycross and Agatha Foster, correct? Didn't you pay any attention to the welcoming speech that the prefects gave the first-years?"

Padma chimed in, "I certainly remember the speech that Robert Hilliard gave us Ravenclaws last year. He specifically said that we value those that 'march to a different tune' and that the cool thing about Ravenclaw is that our people are the most original. Penelope Clearwater backed him up about all that."

"And, if I remember correctly, at the very end, Prefect Hilliard described Ravenclaw, in addition to being the cleverest house, as the quirkiest and most interesting," Hermione added. "Having unique individuals with different views like Luna here makes our house that way and keeps things refreshing and not old and boring."

"So I suggest that you keep your opinions of Luna to yourselves and at least try to accept her," Terry finished. "I don't want our prefects to be proven wrong about how they described Ravenclaw. That goes for everyone else. If we find anyone in Ravenclaw making fun of Luna Lovegood, or her friends Liam Stanley, Ginny Weasley, and Colin Creevy for defending her, we'll tell the prefects _and_ Professor Flitwick. And the rest of the Amity Association will do the same. If you don't know who we are, ask the prefects."

Agatha and Darren glared at him, while a couple of their dormmates looked uncomfortable or somewhat ashamed and focused strictly on their plates of food. Prefect Penelope Clearwater, who had been close enough to overhear the entire incident, backed the Ravenclaw members of the AA up, and made it clear that anyone she caught making fun of Luna or her group of friends would be given a detention, and if it persisted, reported to Professor Flitwick. Agatha and Darren, looking rather sullen, said nothing more and turned their attention to their breakfasts.

The four first-years thanked Penelope and the AA for coming to their defense and after that, breakfast finished without any further incidents. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in the AA had Herbology for their first class and they headed outside to Greenhouse Three, where the lesson was being held. The other half of the group had Transfiguration, where Professor McGonagall had them working on turning beetles into buttons.

Harry spent most of class feeling rather frustrated, as his spell refused to work and all he achieved was giving the beetle a great deal of exercise as it scuttled around his desk avoiding his wand. It wasn't until the very end of class that he managed to make some difference, turning the insect into what was essentially a beetle-shaped button, except without any holes for thread to go through like with a normal button.

At least he'd done better than Theo, who somehow produced a cloud of smoke by mistake and accidentally squashed his beetle while trying to disperse the smoke. Professor McGonagall hadn't looked pleased as she gave him a replacement beetle, which didn't change it during the rest of class. On the other hand, Hermione had done perfectly, turning her beetle into a button within the first couple of minutes and finishing class with a whole handful of lovely coat buttons, five of them even having a design of a flower etched in the center.

After that, the Slytherins and Ravenclaws had Herbology, which involved repotting Mandrakes. It was quite difficult, even though Professor Sprout had made it look easy, and Harry privately wondered how the second-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had managed the class. Well, Neville probably wouldn't have had too much difficulty, considering his skill with plants, and likely helped his partners a bit, but the rest of the class wouldn't have fared so well. Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were being their usual annoying selves and clearly didn't look happy about the assigned lesson.

When class ended, both Terry and Daphne snapped that they had been so fed up that they had been strongly tempted to knock off Draco's and Pansy's earmuffs so that the cry of the seedling Mandrakes would knock them out for a few hours.

"Honestly!" Hermione exclaimed, looking scandalized. "Yes, they're annoying, but think of all the trouble you'd be in if you'd given in to temptation! Besides, Professor Sprout took off ten points from them for complaining."

"And that's ten points that I wish Slytherin hadn't lost," said Daphne. "All right, I admit that wanting to knock off their earmuffs was a bit much, but Malfoy and Parkinson are getting on my nerves. Especially Parkinson, since she pretty much parrots whatever Malfoy says and Tracey and I are stuck sharing a room with her. You should have heard the things she said to us last night. On second thought, you shouldn't. We tried to ignore her, but she still kept ranting until finally Millicent Bulstrode snapped at her to shut up because she couldn't sleep with all the noise."

"Malfoy did the same," Theo added. "He kept trying to find out why some of the AA wasn't on the train yesterday, and pestered me about being a blood traitor and even went so far as to say that I deserved what my ex-father had done to me, with Crabbe and Goyle backing him up. Harry would have attacked the three if I hadn't held him back and told him that they weren't worth it, and Zabini told Malfoy that nobody deserved to be abused and to shut up."

"You shouldn't have held me back," Harry grumbled. "The two of us could have taken them, and Zabini wasn't going to side with them. He might have even decided to help us."

"I didn't want you getting in trouble for fighting," Theo replied calmly. "Besides, you know when I went to speak to Gemma Farley and Flint before breakfast? I told them about Malfoy said last night and they promised to take care of it."

"Yes, but you still should have let me punch Malfoy, or hex him! I don't care how much trouble I'd be in, especially as his words obviously upset you so much that you had-" Harry broke off, realizing that he'd almost revealed that Theo had suffered from a nightmare during the night, something that the other boy had asked to be kept secret.

The four Ravenclaws and Daphne and Tracey exchanged looks, but didn't ask Harry to finish his sentence. He sent Theo an apologetic look, who gave him a reassuring nod back to show that all was forgiven, and the eight of them hurried back to the castle for a quick wash-up and lunch. The AA sat at the Hufflepuff table for the meal, where the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were quickly told about how Malfoy and Pansy had been acting.

Ron glanced at Theo and asked in a quiet voice, "You've been having nightmares, haven't you? I would too if I'd gone through what you had, and I bet what Malfoy said last night would have upset you enough to give you one, Theo."

Theo blinked in surprise at Ron's perceptiveness, but admitted that it was the case. Harry leaned over and whispered, "Ron knows that I've had some nightmares about my relatives, so he'd figure the same could happen to you."

The rest of the AA looked very unhappy to hear this and none of them had much appetite after that, instead going out to the courtyard and spending the rest of the hour alternately trying to comfort Theo and plotting ways to get back at Malfoy. When the bell rang, signalling the start of afternoon classes, the Gryffindors hurried off to Defense, the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to History of Magic, and the Ravenclaws to Charms.

When the AA met up for an early dinner, the Gryffindors reported that Defense class had been a joke. Professor Lockhart had started off the lesson by giving a quiz to supposedly 'check how well' they'd read his books, but was filled with questions that had more to do about himself than about Defense.

"The first question was 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?'," Ron said in disgust. "The next one asked about his 'secret ambition' and there were ones about his ideal birthday gift and what we thought his greatest achievement was. All his questions were like that, and there were over fifty of them."

"I just put down joke answers for them," said Dean. "Like the one for greatest achievement, I put down 'Being able to walk and breathe at the same time', and I said his ideal birthday gift was to get a brain, like what the Scarecrow wanted in _The Wizard of Oz_."

As the entire AA had seen the movie during the visit to Justin, and some of them had also read his copy of the book, they all understood the reference and either snorted or chuckled at the statement. Parvati and Lavender then went on to explain that Lockhart had set loose an entire cageful of Cornish pixies for the lesson and describe the subsequent havoc the pixies had caused. Poor Seamus Finnigan had been lifted into the air by his ears and left hanging on the chandelier. Luckily Ron had the presence of mind to use the Levitation Charm to get Seamus back to the ground before he could fall off or the chandelier gave way.

Lockart tried to encourage the class to round up the pixies, but his spell (assuming it was a real one and not made up) had no effect and only resulted in one of the pixies seizing his wand and throwing it out the window. The entire class, including Lockhart, ended up sheltering underneath their desks until Lavender remembered that the AA had practiced the Freezing Charm on their own last year and so cast it on some of the pixies. That led to Parvati, Ron, and Dean joining her, and when the bell rang, the four of them had managed to immobilize all the pixies (except for the ones that had broken the window and flown out) and stuff them back into the cage. The only good thing to come out of it was Lockhart praising the four of their quick thinking and awarding them twenty-five points each for successfully dealing with the pixies.

"Winning your house a hundred points is always a good thing," said Susan brightly. "But if Lockhart couldn't deal with a bunch of pixies, then I seriously doubt if he even did all those amazing things he said he did in his books."

"Considering what Uncle Sirius and Remus told us about how Lockhart was back in school, I'd have to agree, Susan," said Harry. "I wouldn't put it past Lockhart to make up stuff about his supposed great deeds, or even take credit from other people, to further his desire to be famous."

"Well, now we know our classes with Lockhart are going to be a joke," Anthony grumbled. "I doubt he'll be stupid enough to let pixies loose again, or bring in any other creatures, when he clearly can't handle them, but he likely just go on about his books and himself."

"Well, we can always study Defense on our own," Hermione pointed out. "I'm sure the Room will provide us with some dummies that we can practice jinxes and hexes on."

The others agreed that it was a good idea and after dinner, they all headed for the the Room of Requirement.


	6. Chapter 6

As predicted, Defense Against Dark Arts turned out to be boring. The next morning, the second year Slytherins had their first Defense class of the year. There was the quiz that the Gryffindors had warned about and Harry decided to follow Dean's example and write down silly or snarky answers to the questions. He apparently wasn't the only one, for when Lockhart looked over the papers, he remarked, "Some of you really need to read my books better. Six of you wrote down 'If I knew what your secret ambition was, it wouldn't be so secret'. And no, my ideal birthday wish isn't 'to receive a brain' or 'learn how to properly deal with Cornish pixies'. I _do_ know how to properly deal with pixies and was only testing yesterday's class."

Daphne, who was sitting next to Harry, let out an unladylike snort. Lockhart finished going over the quiz and then opened up _Break with a Banshee_ , where he started reading out the chapter of how he dealt with the Bandon Banshee. None of the class was happy to discover that Anthony's prediction of Defense class was true. Even worse, Tracey and Harry were (to their great annoyance) called up front to act out the roles of the banshee and a Bandon villager respectively as Lockhart went from reading to enacting out the whole 'thrilling escapade'. Draco went from being bored to great amusement at seeing Harry and Tracey having to take part in all this and Pansy joined him, shaking with suppressed laughter.

When class was dismissed, Draco and Pansy walked out chortling over the enactment, and Crabbe and Goyle joined in with a few guffaws as they followed Draco. Out in the corridor, Pansy said, "Hey, Davis, if the Bandon Banshee actually had been anything like your acting of it, Professor Lockhart would have defeated in a few seconds."

"Oh shut up, Parkinson," Harry retorted. "I imagine your acting would be even worse."

"What about your acting, Potter?" Malfoy asked. "Or do you really sound like that when you're scared or when you're thanking someone for saving them?"

"I was annoyed at being called up, so of course I'd make that clear!" Harry snapped. "If you'd been -"

"Harry, enough," Theodore interrupted. "Their opinion doesn't matter as it's beneath us. Just ignore them."

"Yes," said Daphne sweetly. "After all, unicorns take no notice of what a mule thinks of them, so we should take no notice of what people like Pansy and Draco think, even if they are as stubborn as one. Now come on, or we'll be late for Potions."

Both Pansy and Draco looked indignant at basically being compared to mules, but the four AA members ignored them and hurried down to the Potions classrooms while Blaise and Millicent chuckled at the comparison as they followed at a more leisurely pace.

On Thursday, Slytherin had Quidditch tryouts, as Terrence Higgs had chosen to drop out of being Seeker in order to focus on studying for NEWTs that year. Draco showed up for it with a Nimbus Two Thousand One and more-or-less said that if he were to be made Seeker, his father would buy six more of the brooms and donate them to the team. The beaters, Derrick and Bole, looked excited at that, but Flint, not looking impressed at all, said flatly, "You're only being made Seeker if you're better than Potter or the other candidates trying out, Malfoy. Having the best brooms on the market isn't going to make up for poor performance on your part, and I want Slytherin to win the Quidditch Cup this year after we lost out on it to the Gryffindors last year."

Malfoy looked rather sulky at that, but didn't say anything as Flint ordered the four candidates for Seeker into the air so he could gauge their flying skills before letting loose the practice Snitch. Harry and Malfoy proved to be the best flyers, with the other two, both third years, competent enough but not to the level of the two second-years. Flint then had the two third years fly on their own and released the practice Snitch.

Of the two third-years, the girl, Adella Roper, caught the Snitch first. The boy, Julius Bole (a younger brother of the beater) was disqualified and Adella was first pitted against Malfoy and then Harry. Both second years beat her to the Snitch and then they faced off against each other. Though Malfoy had the slightly faster broom, Harry was still able to beat him to the Snitch, and did so the subsequent two times. (Though the third one was a close one and Harry had to knock Malfoy's arm out of the way in order to catch the Snitch). Flint declared Harry to be Slytherin's new Seeker, with Malfoy as the reserve.

There were some cheers from the scattered Slytherins up in the stands, except for Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle, the former of whom looked very upset and started protesting that Draco deserved to be the full Seeker. Malfoy himself objected vehemently, saying that he had the faster broom and would go to his father about this.

"That's enough, Malfoy!" snapped Flint. "I'm the captain and what I say goes. You might have had the faster broom, but Potter was still able to beat you to the Snitch _three_ times on his Nimbus Two Thousand. And what kind of Slytherin are you, if you have to go to daddy for every little thing that doesn't go your way?"

Malfoy turned pink, but apparently couldn't come up with any retort and so stalked off the pitch in a foul mood. Harry shook his head at this and then Flint dismissed the team, saying that he would arrange for them to have practice Saturday morning.

As Harry headed back to castle so he could tell the non-Slytherin members of the AA that he'd made the team, an idea occurred to him. He knew that his trust vault had over seven thousand galleons and the spending money he'd withdrawn this year and last hadn't made any dent in it, considering that five hundred galleons got transferred to it yearly from the Potter family vault. He also knew that the Nimbus Two Thousand cost less than one hundred galleons and that the Nimbus Two Thousand One would be only slightly more expensive than that. With that in mind, he made a quick detour to the Slytherin common room to pick up some writing supplies and another detour to the Owlery, where he soon sent Hedwig off with an order to Quality Quidditch Supplies.

By Saturday morning, the four Heads of House would have each received seven Nimbus Two Thousand Ones, with a note specifying that they were donations to the house Quidditch teams. The order had noted that the money was to be taken out of his trust vault, but the brooms were to be sent anonymously, as he didn't want anyone finding out that he had done this. If his guardians did find out the large withdrawal from his trust vault, he would explain why, but otherwise he wasn't telling anyone.

As it turned out, the broomsticks arrived in the afternoon. The accompanying notes only said that the brooms were being donated anonymously by someone who really liked Hogwarts and was feeling generous. There was quite a bit of headscratching and speculation as to which wealthy Hogwarts alumni felt the need to make such a generous donation at dinnertime after Professor Dumbledore made the announcement and the Heads called their houses' respective Quidditch teams in their offices to pick up the team brooms.

"It wasn't my father," Draco snapped when some of the Slytherins questioned him. "After only being made _reserve_ Seeker, do you think I'd ask him to donate brooms? And even if he did decide to donate brooms, he'd only donate to Slytherin, not the other houses."

When the AA met up after dinner, they were also speculating on who the anonymous donor was, until Padma noticed that Harry was silent during all this, and in fact had a mysterious smile on his face. "Harry, what's up with you? Aren't you curious as to who donated those brooms? And why do you have that smile on your..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at him and then she exclaimed, "Harry! You didn't send those brooms, did you?"

The rest of the AA stared at Harry, and Hermione remarked, "Well, if he did, he can certainly afford to. But why would you do such a thing, Harry James Potter?"

"I'm not saying I did," said Harry firmly. "But _if_ I did, Malfoy is the reason. He flat out tried to bribe his way to becoming Seeker by saying that his father would give the Slytherin team Nimbus Two Thousand Ones. Flint wasn't having any of that, but Malfoy's bribe annoyed me. Besides which, it would be hardly fair to have one team have top-of-the-line brooms while the others didn't, right?"

"Yes, but why would you spend at least two thousand galleons in one go like that?" Theo demanded. "Even if you can afford it, that's still a strange thing to do, and if you felt such a donation was necessary, you could have asked Sirus and Lia to make it."

"I didn't say I made the donation," Harry snapped. "Besides, don't you agree that that the house teams could use good quality but standard brooms, in the interest of fairness?"

"Leave Harry alone," Ron interjected. "He's not going to confirm or deny making the donation, even though it's pretty obvious to us that he did, and he makes good points. Besides, it's his money and he can spend it however he wants."

There were still some doubtful looks, mostly due to the large amount of money that had been spent, but the AA dropped the subject, other than to promise to not reveal that Harry was behind the donation since he clearly wanted to remain anonymous.

For Saturday's morning practice, it turned out that the Gryffindor team had booked the pitch for then, while Flint had gone to Professor Snape for a note authorizing the Slytherin team to use the pitch at the same time. It looked as if Flint and Wood might come to blows, or hexes, over this, until Harry interrupted, "I thought we were working to improve Slytherin's reputation, Flint. Stunts like this aren't helping with that."

Flint paused and looked taken aback, as if he hadn't thought about how this would look. Harry continued mildly, "I know you're anxious to get me trained and all, but you didn't need to go that far. Well, since the Gryffindors have booked the pitch, but it would be stupid the waste Professor Snape's note, why don't both our teams have a practice match? We can ask Madam Hooch to oversee us and it'll be good practice for when we actually do have to face off against each other in a real match."

Fred and George sided with Harry's suggestion, and so, with some reluctance, Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood agreed to it. Angelina Johnson, one of the Gryffindor chasers, ran off to get Madam Hooch, and when the flying instructor arrived, the two teams took off in the air for the practice match. Some of the other students turned up to watch, including Lee Jordan, who took up his usual role of commentator and Daphne ended up filling in as Professor McGonagall as she tried to keep him in check with his comments.

Harry ended up catching the Snitch after an hour (it was agreed that the Seekers wouldn't actually try to catch the Snitch until after forty-five minutes had passed so that both teams could get an actual practice in), with the unofficial score being two hundred and fifty to one hundred, in Slytherin's favor. All in all, it was declared a good practice match, with both teams knowing what they had to work on for the real matches. They then left for the locker rooms to shower and change.

After lunch, the AA went down to visit Hagrid, who showed off his pumpkins, which were now even larger than when he'd shown them to Harry, Ron, Justin, Theo, Parvati, and Padma the day they couldn't get through the barrier. He was happy to see the group, though he did admit to at first thinking that perhaps Professor Lockhart had come back, as the Defense teacher had visited that morning. The AA was rather pleased to see that Hagrid didn't think much of Lockhart, and he confirmed the stories of the antics that Lockhart had gotten into back as a student.

On Sunday, Harry, with the AA surrounding him, called Sirius and Lia via the two-way mirror to report that so far, nothing untoward had happened. Sirius brought up the fact that he'd found out that morning that 2,600 galleons had been withdrawn from the trust vault, so Harry had to explain about the anonymous donation that he'd made. Lia proceeded to lecture him about his spending, saying that he could have gone to them and they would have made the donation instead.

"I didn't think of that, all right?" Harry said. "It's my money and I can spend what's in my trust vault however I want. Besides, it's not like I spent those almost three thousand galleons on something frivolous for myself, but on something rather useful for Hogwarts."

"You have a point there," said Lia. "I just wish you had consulted Sirius and me first before you went ahead and did it, Harry."

"I'll do that in the future, Aunt Lia," Harry promised.

"Good," said Lia and after she and Sirius wished the AA well, they ended the connection.

Author's Note: Reviewer Harriverse kindly reminded me that I had written Sirius as donating new school brooms in the previous fic, so I have changed it to just having Harry buying brooms of the house teams.


	7. Chapter 7

The rest of September passed without incident, other than the AA celebrating Hermione's thirteenth birthday and Harry, while walking down a corridor after dinner one day, hearing a voice saying what sounded like, " _Come...come to me_ _...Let me rip you...Let me tear you...Let me kill you..._ " When he jumped in surprise and explained what he heard this however, his friends all informed him that they hadn't heard anything.

"Well, other than our conversation about how to deal with Lockhart's stupid classes," Dean amended. "And none of us certainly said anything about wanting to rip, tear, or kill Lockhart or anyone else, though Ron did say that he would like chuck Lockhart's books in the bin and burn them into ashes."

Hermione, who had been arguing with Ron over how book burning ought to be a crime, even if the books were written by someone as idiotic as Lockhart, still looked highly disapproving. "Seriously, no book should ever be burned."

"Oh, what about some of the books the Ministry confiscated that Dad told me about?" Ron retorted. "There was one that burned your eyes out. Anyone who read _Sonnets of a Sorcerer_ spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could _never stop reading_. You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And -"

"All right, Ronald, I've got the point," interrupted Hermione. "Though perhaps burning cursed books should only be used as a last resort if the curses on those books can't be removed.

Harry sighed. "All right, so none of you heard the voice that I did. Then does that mean that I was hearing things?"

"Probably," answered Daphne. "Maybe you're just really think the plot to be carried out no matter what, even though the Professor Dumbledore's been warned and the staff are on guard, and you imagined a voice saying that they wanted to rip and kill someone."

Harry accepted this explanation and put the incident out of his mind. However, a week later, on the first of October, he heard the voice again, saying pretty much the same thing it had the first time. This time, only his Slytherin friends were with him, and they didn't hear the voice, only the sound of their footsteps and their conversation about the Potions essay that Professor Snape had assigned that day. Harry, feeling frustrated, wondered if he was starting to go crazy, since hearing voices that nobody else could was not good in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, and debated telling his godparents about it. He finally decided that if he did hear the voice again, he would do so.

The next day, Harry completely forgot about the incident, as another matter caught his attention. Luna Lovegood walked into the Great Hall with Liam at breakfast time and took seats at the Gryffindor table, where the AA was sitting as well. Lavender happened to look down and then exclaimed, "Luna! Why aren't you wearing shoes?"

Liam, looking startled, turned to glance down at Luna's feet. "Why are you barefoot, Luna? I know you sometimes like to do so in the warm weather, but you never do so in cold weather or when out in public."

Luna replied serenely, "I couldn't find my shoes this morning. I suppose the nargles took them and hid them."

Ginny, who happened to have walked in with Colin and overheard the response, exclaimed, "You couldn't find your shoes!? I don't think nargles were involved in their disappearance. And not because I don't believe in their existence. It's because Agatha and Darren are still rude to you."

The AA frowned and Anthony and Hermione got up and went over to the Ravenclaw table. Agatha Foster and Darren Twycross maintained that they had no idea that Luna couldn't find her shoes, though they also added that she was such a silly and loony person that she must have misplaced her shoes herself. Penelope Clearwater and Robert Hillard said that they would keep a lookout for the shoes and a closer eye on the two troublemakers.

"Well, you can't go around school barefoot, Luna," said Hermione upon her return to the Gryffindor table. "It's gotten cold out and parts of the castle are drafty."

Parvati nodded and asked Luna's shoe size. As Susan also had the same size, she stuffed her last bite of toast in her mouth and then rushed down to the Hufflepuff common room to grab a spare pair of shoes to lend to the younger girl. When she returned, she saw that Liam was now quite upset. He was going through his schoolbag and had just discovered that his Transfiguration and Charms homework was missing. As he had gone over the homework the previous night to make sure that he'd written down the correct answers and then placed it in his schoolbag, there was no reason for it to suddenly go missing.

"What am I going to do?" he wailed, his eyes looking frantic behind his glasses. "I've got Charms _and_ Transfiguration today! I've never missed turning in an assignment before and having my homework go missing isn't going to be a good enough excuse to show up in class without it! Especially as I can't prove that I did it before it went missing!"

"Calm down, Liam," Terry said. "Why don't you go back to your dorm room and check that you didn't accidentally leave it there?"

"There's no point!" snapped Liam. "Before I came down for breakfast I made sure that none of the stuff I need for classes today was lying around. I've _always_ done that, and didn't need the prefects suggesting it to us to cut down on our having to go back to our common room for things we forgot." He glanced at the Ravenclaw table and his eyes narrowed. "I think I know what happened to my homework," he said grimly and marched over to Darren, who was snickering about something with Agatha.

Words were exchanged and Liam clearly lost his temper, for he shouted, "DARREN TWYCROSS, STOP LYING! I KNOW YOU TOOK MY HOMEWORK!"

Professor McGonagall left the staff table and was at the Ravenclaw table in a flash, Professor Flitwick not far behind. "What's going on here?" the former demanded.

"My homework!" Liam snapped. "I just checked my bag and the assignments for Charms and Transfiguration aren't there. I _know_ I put my homework in my bag last night, and I checked to make sure that nothing I needed for classes was lying around in the dorm room before coming down for breakfast."

"Mr. Stanley, what makes you think that Mr. Twycross is behind your missing homework?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"He and Agatha Foster were laughing about it when I realized that my homework was missing. Besides which, they're already making fun of Luna Lovegood just because her father is editor of _The Quibbler_ and she believes most of the stuff published in it, and because I'm friends with her, they don't like me either."

Robert Hilliard spoke up, reminding Professor Flitwick that the Ravenclaw prefects had mentioned Darren's and Agatha's behavior before, and added that Luna's shoes had gone missing this morning. After several minutes of thorough investigation (which included questioning the other Ravenclaw first years), it turned out that the two, plus Nicola Elliot, who had been cowed by Agatha into going along with things, were behind the missing shoes and homework. Darren had taken the homework after Liam was asleep and tossed it in the common room fireplace, while Agatha had taken the shoes and hidden them in Nicola's trunk.

"I am most disappointed and upset with your behavior," said Professor Flitwick, looking quite angry. "Fifty points will be taken from Ravenclaw, and Mr. Twycross and Miss Foster, you both have a week's detention. Miss Elliot, since you were bullied into going along, you will just have one detention, and in the future, if Miss Foster tries to get you involved in something like this again, please report it to me or one of the prefects. Now, go and return Miss Lovegood's shoes."

Professor McGonagall added, "As for you, Mr. Stanley, you will not be penalized for not having your homework today. Just see me after class and I will ask you a few questions to make sure that you understood the information from the assignment."

Professor Flitwick said the same thing regarding Liam's Charms homework, and the whole matter was settled. As breakfast ended and everyone left for their first class of the day, all the students were talking about what had happened. Many Ravenclaws were quite upset with the loss of fifty points and unhappy that Agatha and Darren had persisted in bullying Luna and her friends despite several warnings.

At lunchtime, the AA extended a standing invitation for the quartet of first years to join them in the Room of Requirement, though they were free to do their own things and not have to mingle with the older group. Hermione and Anthony also offered to place locking and protective spells on Liam's and Luna's trunks and school bags to keep unauthorized people from meddling with their belongings (since Agatha and Darren didn't look as if they had learned their lesson and would probably just be sneakier about bullying). Fred and George, overhearing all this, offered some of their joke items so that Liam and Luna could also booby-trap their things when they went to bed.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not get in trouble," said Liam. "And what if Luna and I forget about the booby-trap one morning and set if off when we open our trunks?"

The twins looked a bit disappointed, but acknowledged that he had a point. "Well, if any of the Ravenclaws, not just that Agatha and Darren, try to bother you guys again, let them know that we'll target them for some pranks," Fred said seriously.

"Don't worry, it won't be anything really horrible, just a few harmless things that will get some laughs, like turning them purple for an hour," George added. "We'll run any ideas by you guys or the AA first to make sure that we don't let things get out of hand."

Ginny thanked her brothers without indicating if her quartet would take them up on the offer. After that, the quartet started hanging out in the Room of Requirement, though they normally kept to themselves in one corner of the room. Occasionally they would interact with the AA, but it was mostly for help regarding homework or learning a new spell. When they weren't busy with schoolwork, the four would be found huddled together, talking in whispers and writing in something.

When Theo asked what they were doing, Luna said, "Oh, we're just writing in our diary."

"It's really fun!" Colin exclaimed. "Tom-"

Ginny nudged him and he fell silent. Susan, an eyebrow raised, asked, "Tom? What, did you name your group diary or something?"

"Yes," said Ginny firmly. "We felt it would be better than just writing 'Dear Diary' for each entry."

"Our diary is private, so we don't want to talk about it anymore," Liam added, and the AA nodded and left the quartet to it.

Harry had a nagging feeling that there was something more to the diary, but he couldn't figure out why he had this feeling. On the face of it, there was nothing sinister about the quartet writing in a private diary or journal. Even giving it a name wasn't anything unusual, since other people had done the same (or addressed each entry to an imaginary friend). For example, he knew that the historical personage Anne Frank had addressed her diary entries to 'Kitty'. (Lia had gifted Hermione with a copy of _A Diary of a Young Girl_ for her birthday.) However, Harry still felt bothered and he was half tempted to get his hands on the diary that the quartet was writing in and take a peek inside. He resisted the temptation, though, as he didn't want to invade their privacy and the rest of the AA didn't think there was anything strange about it. Eventually he decided that he was being paranoid, and dismissed the matter from his mind.


	8. Chapter 8

Halloween arrived and there was an air of anticipation at Hogwarts. The Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's enormous pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment at the feast. The AA took a few minutes of silence in the morning to honor Lily and James Potter. After that, they had a discussion over whether to go the Halloween feast or accept Nearly Headless Nick's invitation (tendered to Ron and Parvati for the entire AA) to attend his Deathday party.

While Hermione thought it would be quite interesting and was all for going, the rest of the AA weren't so enthused. Finally Daphne said, "Well, I was at my great-grandfather's fiftieth Deathday party two years ago and it was quite boring. Out of deference to his still living descendants, there were some nice refreshments, but that was the only good thing. His speech was boring, the other ghosts that attended were quite tedious, and the Headless Hunt crashed the party halfway through. My parents had to threaten to go the Ministry to expel them before they would leave. And the food for the ghosts was _not_ edible. It was all rotten and disgusting, so that the ghosts could almost taste them."

"Then we're not going to Nick's party," said Ron firmly, making a face. "I don't think he'd have edible food for us, and the main reason he invited us was so we could tell Sir Patrick of the Headless Hunt how frightening and impressive we found Nick."

The others agreed (Hermione a bit reluctantly), and at seven o'clock in the evening headed down for the Halloween feast. The rumors of dancing skeletons proved to be true and the students enjoyed the entertainment along with the delicious food. Towards the end of the feast, the AA noticed that the Gryffinclaw quartet (as Luna, Ginny, Colin, and Liam had dubbed themselves) weren't at either the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw tables. They wondered if Nearly Headless Nick had invited the quartet to his Deathday party and they'd attended, though it didn't seem very likely. While the Gryffinclaws were acquainted with the Gryffindor House ghost, none of them seemed likely to want to give up attending their first Halloween feast at Hogwarts for another event.

As one of the older Hufflepuffs got up to go to the bathroom, Susan suggested, "Maybe the Gryffinclaws left a couple of minutes ago to go to the bathroom, too. They've made a habit of going everywhere together. Well, they wouldn't all go into the same bathroom, but you know what I mean." The others nodded, for there had been instances in the past that some of them had gone to the loo in a group, with the boys waiting outside the girls' bathroom and vice versa.

"That's probably it," said Anthony, and a few minutes later, the feast ended and everyone got up to leave.

Outside the Great Hall, the students were talking happily, when suddenly there was a halt out in the nearest corridor. The chatter, bustle, and noise died suddenly (other than for horrified gasps) as those in front, followed by those behind them, took in the shocking scene. Shimmering in the light cast by hanging torches, on the wall between two windows, were daubed, foot-high, the words, "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE." Hanging underneath and upside down, from a torch bracket, was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring. Beneath her, on the floor, was a large puddle of water, reflecting everything on the wall.

The mass of students pressed forward to see the grisly sight, until someone shouted through the quiet. "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat. Harry groaned, upset that despite warnings and being on guard, the Malfoy plot (whatever it was) had still managed to somehow be carried out (or at least part of it) at Hogwarts.

"What's going on here? What's going on?" Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. He cast his popping eyes around, looking for a culprit.

Luckily, Professor Dumbledore, followed by a number of the other teachers, appeared on the scene. After an examination of Mrs. Norris, he removed her from the torch bracket. "Calm down, Argus, she's only Petrified. Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"

"Excuse me," interrupted Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

There were a few nervous titters at this from some of the students and Dumbledore announced, "Don't worry, I will look into this matter to see how this could have happened and take steps to put an end to it. Now, could you all please follow your prefects to your respective common rooms?"

The students did as told, whispering to each other as they speculated to what could have happened. The AA managed to give the other students the slip and went straightway to the Room of Requirement. It provided them with a large room containing sixteen beds and sixteen comfortable chairs around a large circular table, with two bathrooms off to one side.

"Okay," said Hermione once they were all seated. "Let's list the facts." A movable blackboard with chalk and erasers appeared next to the table and she got up to start writing, speaking as she did so. "One, Mrs. Norris is found Petrified and hanging by her tail from a torch bracket in the corridor near the Great Hall. Two, painted on the wall above her are the words 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE'. Three, there was a large water puddle on the floor beneath the cat. Four, Draco Malfoy pushed forward and repeated the last sentence on the wall and added, 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' Five, Professor Dumbledore examines Mrs. Norris, reveals that she's only Petrified, and that it will be investigated."

Once she was done, Hermione sat down again and the AA mulled things over. "We were near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Lavender pointed out. "The puddle probably came from there. Myrtle was likely upset about something, as usual, and flooded the bathroom."

The other girls agreed with her and the AA decided that the water puddle likely wasn't important to Mrs. Norris's Petrification. "Well, I'm curious as to what Draco's involvement in this is," Theodore said. "He was at the feast, so he couldn't have Petrified Filch's cat, but he seemed rather happy about seeing it. If Dumbledore hadn't shown up, Filch might have seized on Draco as a culprit and accused him of being behind it all."

"The writing said that the Chamber of Secrets was opened," Justin said. "What's that?"

"Supposedly when Hogwarts was built, Salazar Slytherin had added a secret chamber to the castle that only he knew about," Tracey said. She concentrated in thought for a couple of seconds and a copy of _Hogwarts, a History_ appeared on the table. She flipped through the first couple of chapters of the book, stopping at the relevant section, and read out loud about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and Salazar Slytherin's falling-out with the other three Founders and his subsequent departure from the school.

"There's a rumor that the Chamber of Secrets was opened once before, about fifty years ago," said Neville when Tracey was done reading. "My Gran said something about it, and she went to Hogwarts around that time."

"So let's assume that Slytherin's secret chamber is real," said Terry. "Does that mean his descendant, or should I say Heir, is here at Hogwarts and somehow opened it again?"

"That would mean that Tom Riddle is somehow at Hogwarts," Harry pointed out. "Professor Vicks, I mean Eric, did some investigating for Aunt Lia and Uncle Sirius and found out that Riddle is descended from Slytherin. Riddle's mother was a Gaunt, and way back when, the Gaunts had married one of Slytherin's female descendants."

"Oh," said the others, and then Ron asked, "Could Riddle be controlling someone to open the Chamber for him? Dad told me about the Imperius Curse and Riddle could have somehow cast it on a student or staff member to do his bidding, since it's not likely he can get in by possessing a teacher again."

"I don't know if he could do that, but he could be controlling someone in a different manner," Padma said. "Or perhaps he revealed how to open it to Mr. Malfoy at some point, and that's the plot that Dobby was warning us about, that the Malfoys are working to get the Chamber of Secrets opened again."

"That's more likely," said Hannah. "But how does that lead to Mrs. Norris being Petrified? The legend says that there's a monster in the Chamber of Secrets, but what kind of monster, assuming that part of the legend is real, could cause Petrification?"

"Hmm, I know Gorgons can Petrify beings, or turn them into stone," said Daphne thoughtfully. "However, their lifespan isn't anywhere close to a thousand years, so if Salazar Slytherin had hidden one in his chamber, it would be long dead by now. So the monster has to be something else."

Since none of them had any idea as to what the supposed monster could be, they decided to do some research in the library tomorrow (or rather, later today, when Susan pointed out that it was after midnight). Since it was now Sunday, they would have the whole day available to devote to the research. Harry finally remembered that he should probably tell his godparents what was going on and pulled out the two-way mirror from his pocket. Luckily for him, Lia and Sirius were awake, as they'd just finished tending Matt when he'd woken up over needing his nappy changed and gotten him back to sleep.

Harry explained about Mrs. Norris's Petrification and the writing on the wall, and upon Daphne's reminder, added the two instances where he'd heard a voice talking about ripping and killing but his friends hadn't heard anything. "Hmm, I'll talk with Professor Dumbledore about it later today," Sirius said. "We'll see if we can figure out what's going on."

"And I'll have Eric look into the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and the rumor about it being opened once before," said Lia. "Now, please don't do anything rash, okay? Harry and Theodore, let the adults handle it for the time being. As for the rest of the AA, I'm not your parent or guardian or teacher, so I have no control over you guys, but I would like to request that you do the same. Though if you want to help in the research department, I have no objection."

The AA promised that they wouldn't do anything rash and just limit it to research, and then bid Sirius and Lia good-night and Harry ended the call. Since it was getting late and they couldn't speculate more without further information, the group got ready for sleep in the beds that the Room had provided for them.


	9. Chapter 9

As soon as breakfast was over the next morning, the AA went to the library and checked out several books on magical creatures, then settled in the Room of Requirement to look through them. During the meal itself, the four Ravenclaws had looked through their copies of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ , in hopes that they might find something. However, while there were any number of creatures listed in the textbook that were quite dangerous and could kill, none were listed as causing Petrification in people. Since the book was meant as a textbook for British wizarding schoolchildren, the AA had figured that they would need more research. For one thing, _Fantastic Beasts_ only gave an overview of various magical creatures and not an in-depth look at them (which only someone studying to be a magizoologist would need), and for another, there were some creatures that weren't listed, as they were North and South American in origin and a British witch or wizard wouldn't likely face them unless he or she traveled to those continents.

The Gryffinclaws turned up halfway through the morning. "Oh, hello guys," said Daphne, as the AA all looked up briefly. "Did you all leave the feast early last night?"

"Me, Luna, and Liam did," Ginny said. "Colin didn't show up _at all_. I was going to walk down to the feast with him, but one of his dormmates told me that Colin had to go to the loo and asked me not to wait for him. I did, but when he didn't show up, we started getting worried."

"After forty minutes or so, we got really worried, so we each wrapped up some food in a napkin and went looking for Colin," Liam continued. "We didn't find him until after the feast was over, and things really got weird."

Colin nodded emphatically. "I had some red paint on my clothes, and for some odd reason, I had no memory of anything after I left for the bathroom. Ginny magically cleaned the paint off and they gave me the food they'd wrapped up. After I ate, we went to our common rooms, and that's when we heard about Mr. Filch's cat."

"And now Colin has a feeling that he might have had something to do with Mrs. Norris," Luna said. "But since he doesn't remember anything of the time during the feast, he can't be sure. Besides, he doesn't know any magic to Petrify a cat, much less a human being, so unless someone was controlling him, it's not possible."

The entire AA now had looks of alarm on their faces. "Someone could be controlling you, Colin!" exclaimed Hannah. "Last year we found out that You-Know-Who was possessing Professor Quirrell, so he or one of his followers that escaped arrest could be doing this! Probably Mr. Malfoy, because of the warning his house-elf gave us."

"But I don't feel like anyone was controlling me," Colin protested. "I just can't remember anything since I went to the bathroom and until my friends found me. I do have this feeling that it's connected to Mrs. Norris, but that doesn't mean anything. Maybe one of my dormmates cast a spell on me for a joke."

"Except Memory Charms and related spells are too complex for a first year to know, much less cast," Hermione pointed out. "I did some reading on the theory last month, and I don't feel capable of casting any of those spells, even if I am rather advanced when it comes to spellwork."

"Then maybe I got slipped a potion," Colin said. "Look, I feel fine now and my only issue is that I got my friends worried with my disappearing act and they had to cut the feast short to look for me. I'll be more careful of any snacks my dormmates, or anyone else, offer me in the future, all right?"

The AA didn't look convinced, but Ginny said, "And we'll keep a closer eye on Colin too, okay? Now, we just want to relax and go write to Tom, I mean our diary."

"You've been writing in your group diary an awful lot lately," Ron said. "From the looks of it, it'll be filled up before November is over. You guys should look into getting a new one."

"We don't need to worry about that," said Luna. "It's not going to run out of pages."

"What do you mean?" asked Theo.

Luna opened her mouth to reply, but Liam elbowed her and said, "There's a spell on it that can wipe away what we write in it. We're not using the diary to record our thoughts for, what's the word, posterity, but to just vent and everything. Now, can we stop with all the questioning and get on with our private activities, please?"

The AA exchanged looks, but as they still had research to do, nodded and left the Gryffinclaw quintet to their own devices. By dinnertime, the AA hadn't found anything in the books they'd looked through about a creature that could Petrify others. The closest they found was an entry on Gorgons, which could turn people into stone with their gaze. However, Gorgons did not live for hundreds of years, much less over a thousand, which was how old the monster in the Chamber of Secrets would have to be if it truly had been placed there by Salazar Slytherin. The second closest thing they found was that basilisks, with enough food, could live for hundreds of years, possibly even for over a thousand years, and as the 'King of Serpents', certainly fit Slytherin's connection was snakes. The only problem was that a basilisk's gaze killed, not Petrified, and none of them had any idea as to how a giant snake would be getting around the castle unseen, anyway.

When Harry mirror-called his godparents after dinner, Remus and Eric answered. "Sirius and Lia are putting Matt down for bed," Remus said by way of explanation. "So what's going on, Harry?"

"We did research all day, poring through sixteen books plus our copies of _Fantastic Beasts_ , and haven't found anything, Uncle Remus!" Harry snapped in frustration. "There were only two creatures that we found that were remotely possible, but neither one fit the facts we have exactly. Gorgons can turn people to stone with their gaze, but if Slytherin had placed one in his chamber, it would be long dead by now, and basilisks live long enough and fit his snake thing, but their gaze kills, not Petrifies. Not to mention that a fifty-foot snake couldn't travel about the school without _someone_ spotting it. I hope you guys found something!"

"Well, our talk with Professor Dumbledore revealed that the Chamber of Secrets _was_ open before, fifty years ago, to be precise," said Eric. "A student ended up dead. Poor Hagrid was named as the one responsible and was expelled as a result. However, as Tom Riddle was the one to expose Hagrid as the culprit, the general consensus among us is that Riddle was the one that _really_ opened the Chamber and framed Hagrid for it. You see, Hogwarts was about to be shut down due to the student's death, and obviously Riddle did not want to have to leave school and return to the Muggle orphanage he had grown up in."

There were several exclamations of anger and disgust at Riddle framing Hagrid like that from the AA. Harry ignored it, though he was upset, and said, "Then I guess we should talk to Hagrid and see if he can tell us anything new."

Remus frowned. "You shouldn't go prying, Harry, or the AA either. Hagrid really doesn't like talking about the incident that led to him being expelled. Besides, Lia already spoke to him and got confirmation that he was framed. While he had been keeping a rather dangerous creature secretly at the time, it had never left the room that Hagrid was hiding it in. Furthermore, it can't Petrify anyone, and the only way it can kill someone is biting them and injecting them with venom."

"Fine, we won't question Hagrid," Harry said with a sigh. "But if Riddle opened the Chamber back when he was in school, does this mean that we should be looking at snakes?"

"But basilisks and runespoors aren't said to Petrify anyone!" Padma protested. "Basilisks kill with their gaze if anyone looks at their eyes, and they, along with runespoors, can also kill with their venom by biting someone. None of the other snakes that exist are magical."

"Look, why don't you leave the research to me?" Eric asked. "That is what I'm being paid to do, after all. You guys focus on school, that is learning and Quidditch and all that. The adults will handle investigating the Chamber apparently being opened, and can the AA please stay out of it unless something happens that necessitates your involvement."

"All right," said Harry reluctantly. He looked around at his friends and the whole group promised to let Eric do his research and not get involved in the matter unless it was needed.

Even so, the AA found it somewhat difficult to concentrate on regular school life. The other Hogwarts students could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. The AA had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like "breathing loudly" and "looking happy."

Several of the non-Slytherin students were starting to look askance at the Slytherins, which slowly began affecting the majority of the school and thereby undoing much of the work to improve Slytherin's reputation. A small subset of Ravenclaws, led by Agatha and Darren, tried to claim that Luna, or possibly her friends, was responsible for Mrs. Norris's Petrification, but got swiftly shut down by the Ravenclaw prefects and given a detention for pestering Luna.

Fred and George ended up hexing a third-year Gryffindor named Cormac McLaggen when he loudly proclaimed that the "Slimy Slytherins were finally showing their true colors" and that the "AA was a stupid group and ought to kick out the Snakes that were a part of it." All three of them got detention, and that evening, at dinner, the non-Slytherin members of the AA got up and stood in front of the staff table.

"We are tired of the majority of the school turning against the Slytherins!" Anthony shouted out. "Sure, there are a few Slytherins that are rather unpleasant and have no interest in improving its reputation or being part of inter-house cooperation, but the same could be said of some students from the other houses."

"The ones that are part of the Amity Association certainly are wonderful people and loyal friends!" continued Parvati. "We're not going to abandon our friends just because they're part of a house that produced a Dark Lord and had a founder that supposedly built a hidden chamber in this school that may or may not have a monster in it."

"So stop it with automatically blaming everything on the Slytherins and go back to the inter-house cooperation we had before!" Justin snapped, as the Slytherin AA members got up and joined their friends. The Weasley twins, followed by their friend Lee Jordan, brother Percy, and their Quidditch teammates quickly joined the AA in support. The Gryffinclaw quartet, eight Ravenclaws (consisting of their prefects, a third year named Cho Chang, and a second year named Michael Croner), and a dozen Hufflepuffs (consisting of their prefects, some of their prefects' friends, a fourth year named Cedric Diggory, and a second year named Ernie Macmillan) immediately followed.

"Thank you for the support towards Slytherin house and reminding us to not end the inter-house cooperation," Professor Dumbledore interjected. "What has happened to Mrs. Norris is upsetting, but by no means are we to automatically blame a single house simply because of their past reputation. Fifty points go to each house for the Amity Association and the other students that are supporting them for the reminder. I would like all students to keep what they said in mind and if you are unable to let go of your prejudices, then to at least keep them to yourselves and not go lashing out at others. Now, the assembled students, please return to your seats."

After that, the distrust towards the Slytherins died down, though there were still students, like Cormac McLaggen, that persisted in their dislike. However, they confined it to just glaring at the Slytherins and the occasional mutterings and not anything overt that would get them in trouble. A couple were a bit more vocal, but they expressed it as hoping that Gryffindor would trounce Slytherin in the upcoming first Quidditch match of the year.

The day of the Quidditch match arrived. Harry was feeling rather nervous, since it was his first match ever, the pick-up games he had before with his friends and the Weasleys not counting. Sirius, Remus, and Lia showed up to watch (the latter had taken the day off from work and Matt was being watched by Tristan and Ellie). The well-wishes from the AA and his guardians before Harry entered the locker room helped soothe away some of the nerves and he was able to focus as he changed into the Slytherin team robes and listened to Flint's pep talk, which consisted mainly of how hard they'd practiced, that they had an excellent Seeker in Harry, and they were sure to beat Gryffindor or die trying. The last raised a couple of eyebrows from the Keeper and the other two Chasers, as it sounded rather 'Gryffindor-ish'.

"Okay, maybe not die trying," Flint amended. "Pointless heroics aren't our thing and we are rather more sensible in how we achieve our goals. But I want us playing our best and doing what we can to win. And no cheating! At least, not anything that will get the majority of the school to turn on us. The AA may have gotten them to see sense, but we don't want to undo our efforts at improving our reputation and everything, all right?"

The rest of the team nodded and they went out onto the pitch. However, as soon as both teams were in the air, a heavy black Bludger came pelting towards Harry; he avoided it so narrowly that he felt it ruffle his hair as it passed.

"Watch it, Potter!" said Derrick, one of the Slytherin Beaters, as he streaked past on his broom. He swung his bat and gave the Bludger a powerful knock in the direction of Gryffindor Chaser Alicia Spinnet, but for some reason the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Harry again.

Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and Derrick managed to hit it hard towards the Gryffindor Seeker. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head.

Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the pitch. He could hear the Bludger whistling along behind him. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible...

Bole, the other Beater, was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Harry ducked as Bole swing at the Bludger with all his might; it was knocked off course.

"Gotcha!" Bole yelled happily, but he was wrong; as though it was magnetically attracted to Harry, the Bludger pelted after him once more and he was forced to fly off at full speed.

It had started to rain; Harry felt heavy drops fall onto his face, splattering onto his glasses. He didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game until he heard Lee Jordan, who was commentating, say, "Gryffindor lead, forty points to ten - oh, it looks like Flint is calling a time-out."

Harry, doing his best to avoid the Bludger, flew down to the ground, while the Beaters were doing their best to keep it off him. "What's going on?" demanded Flint as soon as the entire team was on the ground. "Derrick, Bole, why are you two around Potter?"

"A Bludger's after him, Flint," Derrick said angrily. "No matter where we hit it at, it just turns around and goes after Potter again! If we don't want it knocking him out or otherwise keep him from catching the Snitch, we have to protect him."

"But if you keep flying around me like that I won't get the Snitch unless it flies up my sleeve or something like that!" Harry protested.

Flint frowned. "But we don't want you too injured to play! Slytherins take care of our own. Besides, something or someone must have tampered with that Bludger!"

"They've been locked up in Madam Hooch's office since Gryffindor's last practice yesterday," Adrian Pucey pointed out. "It obviously was working fine for them, and their team wouldn't stoop to something like this. Maybe we should call for an investigation."

Flint actually looked like he was considering this, but Harry snapped, "NO! Just let me deal with the Bludger on my own! I'm fast enough, and if we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match! I don't want to do that on my very first match."

Flint frowned at Harry, then reluctantly said, "All right then. Derrick, try to keep the Bludger away from Potter, but give him room to catch the Snitch. Bole, you keep the other Bludger away from the rest of the team. Got it?"

Play resumed. The rain was falling more heavily now. Derrick was going his best to intercept the Bludger, while Harry committed a series of climbs, dives, and weird twirls to avoid it. He could hear laughter from the crowd; no doubt he looked very stupid and many probably didn't realize, or care, that there was a rogue Bludger after him. Finally Harry spotted the Snitch fluttering near the Gryffindor goalpost and went after it. He was just about to grab it when the Bludger caught up to him and hit his elbow.

WHAM. Harry felt his arm break. Dimly, dazed by the searing pain in his arm, he slid sideways on his rain-drenched broom, one knee still crooked over it, his right arm dangling useless at his side. His mouth was open, gasping in shock, and in a combination of his sliding and the fluttering of the Snitch, it ended up in his mouth. Derrick managed to hit the Bludger away long enough for Harry to clumsily land on the ground and spit out the Snitch into his good hand, fighting the urge to pass out the whole time.

"Aha," he said vaguely, trying to get to his feet and failing, "we've won." With that, he gave up the fight and fainted.

When he came to, he saw his teammates and his very concerned guardians standing in a cluster around him. "Harry James Potter!" Lia snapped. "What do you think you were doing? Playing through your first match isn't worth your life!"

"But I didn't die, Aunt Lia," Harry protested. "And Slytherin won."

"By the sheer luck of the Snitch flying into your mouth!" Sirius exclaimed. "You could have ended up with more than a broken arm!"

Harry blinked and realized that someone, probably one of his guardians, had magically splinted his arm and that all it needed now was proper healing from Madam Pomfrey. "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I really wanted to play the match and help win it, rather than forfeit."

Remus pursed his lips. "You should have listened to your captain, rather than talking him out of ending it. Anyway, there's going to be an investigation as to why that Bludger was targeting specifically you. Now, let's get you to Madam Pomfrey, and then you can celebrate the win with your housemates."

On the way off the pitch, Lockhart appeared and offered to heal Harry. Sirius had to threaten him with several nasty hexes before the Defense teacher would desist, while Lia and Remus quickly hustled Harry away to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey mended the broken arm in a trice and then Harry headed for the Slytherin common room. However, he wasn't really in the mood to party and as soon as he could, he and his friends slipped away to join the rest of the AA in the Room of Requirement.

"What was up with that Bludger?" was the first words out of Ron's mouth once they were all gathered.

"Beats me," said Harry. "Though in retrospect maybe I shouldn't have insisted on handling it on my own."

"Yes, you shouldn't have, you prat," said Daphne, giving him a gentle swat on his left arm. "What if it had knocked you off your broom instead? You could have broken more than just an arm, or worse, died!"

"I'm sure someone would have slowed his fall or cast a Cushioning Charm on the ground in that case," Terry said. "Assuming Harry's magic didn't react to save him."

"That still doesn't change the fact that Harry could have been badly injured!" Daphne retorted.

"Look, it's over now and I'm fine," interjected Harry. "I want to know why that Bludger was after me. Remus said there's going to be an investigation, but who knows if anything will turn up."

"I'm sure your godparents and the teachers will figure out what happened," Susan said. "Look, at least you caught the Snitch in your first match, even if it was by sliding in such a way that it flew into your mouth."

The others agreed and Harry relaxed enough to celebrate Slytherin's win with his friends for the remainder of the afternoon.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning, Harry got a mirror call from Sirius. "We found out who enchanted that Bludger to go after you, Harry," Sirius said, looking annoyed. "It was Dobby. He showed up at our house around midnight and asked why Lia and I didn't just pull you out of Hogwarts after what happened. He clarified that he wasn't looking to kill you, but hoped that you'd get injured enough to get sent home or have us so concerned about your safety that we'd bring you home."

"Wait, _what_?" Harry asked incredulously. "I figured that he'd stop to barrier to keep me from Hogwarts, but I never though Dobby would continue to get me out of Hogwarts."

Sirius sighed. "Dobby apparently is very concerned for your safety, especially as it looks like the plot is being carried out. Unfortunately, he can't give any details about it, just confirm what we already know, which is that it involves Tom Riddle and Mr. Malfoy did something to set it in motion. Lia is horrified at Dobby's treatment and the punishments he did on himself for trying to keep you out of Hogwarts, so now Eric and I are also tasked with somehow getting Dobby out of the Malfoy's employ and placed in ours."

Considering how miserable that Dobby looked the one time Harry had seen him, and the knowledge that there were wizards that were awful to house elves, Harry liked the idea of getting Dobby out of working for the Malfoys. "Is it possible to buy Dobby from Mr. Malfoy?" Harry asked. "Since house elves are seen as property."

"Yes, but I don't think Lucius Malfoy would sell Dobby to _me_ ," Sirius answered. "And if he did, he'd probably ask for something outrageous, like a million Galleons or casting out Lia and Matt for being a stain on the Black name or something like that. So Eric and I will have to come up with something else."

"I'm sure you two will think of something, Uncle Sirius. Oh, Hermione says I should tell you that the Gryffinclaws are acting a little weird. Colin didn't turn up for the Halloween feast, which meant the other three left in the middle of it to look for him, and when they found him, he had no memory of anything that happened since he left for the bathroom just before dinner. Colin had some paint on his robes and has a feeling that he might have had something to do with Mrs. Norris, but when the AA pressed him, he said one of his dormmates probably slipped him a potion that made him forget things."

"Are you sure Colin wasn't being controlled?" Sirius asked, looking worried.

"Someone, I think it was Hannah, brought it up, pointing out Professor Quirrell was possessed last year, but the Gryffinclaws didn't think that's what going on with Colin," said Harry. "They asked us to just leave them alone so they could go vent in their group diary."

"Hmm, it does sound strange," Sirius mused. "Keep an eye on the Gryffinclaws and if they continue acting weird, let Lia or me know so we can look into it, Harry."

Harry promised and then they ended the connection.

Later that day, in the late afternoon, Colin was found Petrified by one of the boy's bathrooms, his camera clutched in his hands in front of his face, as students were heading to the Great Hall for dinner. Professor Dumbledore wretched the camera out of Colin's grasp and opened it, perhaps in hope of seeing if the boy had managed to get a picture of his attacker. However, the camera opened with a hiss, revealing that the film inside had melted. Rumors and speculation flew as Professor McGonagall levitated Colin's stiff body to the Hospital Wing and Professor Flitwick sought out the three other Gryffinclaws and explained what happened.

After dinner, the AA asked Liam, Ginny, and Luna if they knew what led to Colin's Petrification. "I have no memory of this afternoon, until Colin was found Petrified!" Liam exclaimed, looking upset. "The last thing I remember is writing in our diary. At some point I said I had to go to the bathroom and left with the diary in my hands."

"When he didn't return after half an hour, we went looking for him," Ginny said. "Colin went to check out the boys' bathrooms, while Luna and I looked through the rest of the school. An hour later we found Liam, who had no memory of the past couple of hours, and right after that, Colin was discovered."

"Er, why would you go to the bathroom with your group diary, Liam?" Terry asked.

"I don't know!" Liam snapped. "I have no memory of it, anyway! The important thing is that one of my best friends is Petrified!"

"I know that's upsetting, but you having no memory of half the afternoon isn't good either," said Susan. "And walking off with a diary?"

"That doesn't matter!" Luna insisted, her voice starting to rise, which was unusual for her. "Liam probably walked off with it absent-mindedly. I've been known to do the same. Colin Creevy is Petrified and we're not going to get him back until he can be revived! That's going to take months! He'll miss most of first-year!"

"And you know how excited Colin was to start Hogwarts!" cried Ginny, almost hysterically. "He's already missed his first Halloween feast. How is he going to feel over missing out on the rest of year, since the mandrakes for the revival potion are going to take months to mature?"

"Calm down," said Harry. "I can write to Healer Ellie and see if she can get her hands on the potion, or at least on some mature mandrakes so that Professor Snape can brew it. I'm sure Colin will only have to be Petrified for no more than a week or two."

"And what if she can't?" Luna snapped. "It's not _your_ friend that's lying in a bed in the hospital wing, stiff as stone! _You_ weren't sitting by his bedside as the rest of the school were eating dinner, too upset over what happened to him to try to eat and only leaving when Madam Pomfrey made you go. So don't go telling us to calm down."

The AA, especially Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville (who knew Luna best), were quite shocked, for this was totally unlike her usual demeanor. Finally Neville cleared his throat. "Luna has a point. It's going to be hard for Healer Ellie to get her hands on mature mandrakes at this time of year. They're only mature in spring, and even with preservation spells, they usually last no more than a few months after being harvested. She's better off getting the Mandrake Restorative Draught, but it's not like St. Mungo's or apothecaries have lots of it on hand, since it's not a potion that's commonly needed, especially compared to ones like Pepper-Up Potion or antidotes."

"But the Mandrake Restorative Draught is used to restore those that have been cursed or suffered a transfiguration accident back to normal," Justin said, looking confused. "Shouldn't there be more call for it, considering how easily those accidents can happen?"

"Most magical accidents and curses can usually be dealt with in other ways," Anthony explained. "If, for example, Lockhart had succeeded in getting past Harry's godparents to try to heal Harry of his broken arm but vanished the bones instead, the Mandrake Restorative Draught wouldn't be used to rectify it. Harry would take Skele-Gro instead, since that potion is meant specifically for growing bones. It's the severe stuff that can't be cured in other ways that would require the use of the Mandrake -"

"SHUT UP!" Liam interrupted angrily. "All that matters is that it's needed in this case to revive Colin, but the potion and the main ingredient for it are hard to get right now, so it'll probably take months before he can be revived! You guys aren't helping us right now, just focusing on stuff that has no real bearing on what happened to our friend or telling us to calm down when none of you have any idea what we're going through right now!"

"He's right," snapped Ginny, also looking angry. "And so is Luna. None of you have any idea how upset we feel. In fact, I wish one you _would_ get Petrified so you can know what it's like to have a close friend lying stiff and helpless in the Hospital Wing and deal with well-meaning idiots telling you to calm down or talk about meaningless stuff!"

The AA looked shocked and Ron opened his mouth to try to apologize to his sister and explain that the AA didn't mean to upset them. The Gryffinclaws didn't give him a chance, with Luna saying coldly, "Don't bother, you'll only make things worse. None of you know what we're going through, and I agree with Ginny, maybe one of you should be Petrified just so you have some idea." She then stood up, Ginny and Liam doing the same, and the three stalked out the Room of Requirement, slamming the door behind them.

When the AA got over their shock, Ron said weakly, "Blimey. I knew Ginny had a temper and we saw Liam get mad that one time, but I never thought they could get this mad. And Luna being like this _never_ happens. The only time I saw her upset was when her mum died, and then she just cried a bit for a few days."

"Yes, but we probably were coming across as a bit insensitive," Lavender said. "They're obviously going to be upset over what happened to Colin and less so about Liam going off to the bathroom and having no memory of it or anything else until Ginny and Luna found him."

"I can't imagine how I'd react if one of you _was_ Petrified," Theodore said with a shudder. "But I can understand where the Gryffinclaws are coming from."

Harry pulled out his two-way mirror and called Sirius. To say that his godfather wasn't happy with the news was an understatement. After all, the Creevys were distant cousins to the Blacks, and Sirius had volunteered to be Colin's (and also Dennis's once he started Hogwarts) sponsor in the wizarding world. Sirius was quite ready to Apparate to Hogsmeade then and there and go storming up to the school to check on Colin and confront Professor Dumbledore over how this could have happened. Lia and Remus just managed to keep him from running off to Hogwarts until he'd calmed down and could think straight, reminding him of what happened the last time he let his emotions get the better of him and did something rash (getting framed by Wormtail and ending up stuck in Azkaban for over eight years).

Once Sirius calmed down somewhat, he spat, "I will find out what's going on and pin the cause for Colin's Petrification on Lucius Malfoy! He's not going to get away for instigating this plot and I'll make him pay! Handing over Dobby to my employ is going to be the start of it. And I _will_ have Ellie and Eric get started on procuring either mature mandrakes or the restorative potion immediately. I don't care if they're out of season or not in stock. There has to be a greenhouse that grows them out of season or an apothecary with a few doses in their stores. Money's no object and Ellie and Eric will be authorized to spend however much of my money they need to get Colin restored."

After a week, Eric found a greenhouse that did grow mandrakes out of season. However, only about ten of the plants were mature (as the owners of greenhouse staggered the growth of the mandrakes they had), and it took the offer of three hundred Galleons to sell five of them to Sirius rather than to the usual customers of St. Mungo's and any apothecaries. Ellie didn't feel it was her place to take any of the Mandrake Restorative Potion in stock at St. Mungo's, so she went to the three apothecaries that were in Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and Knockturn Alley. After a great deal of persuasion, the one in Hogsmeade sold their entire stock of the potion (consisting of three flasks containing four doses each), but charged a hundred Galleons per flask to cover the expense of having to procure more mandrakes and brew another batch.

Sirius personally delivered the five mature mandrakes to Professor Snape for brewing into the restorative potion and then handed over the three flasks to potion to Madam Pomfrey, who immediately proceeded to revive Colin and Mrs. Norris. Filch was overjoyed to have his cat back, while Colin met up with his very relieved friends. Sirius and Professor McGonagall then questioned Colin about what he remembered before he got Petrified.

"I was looking for Liam when he didn't return from going to the bathroom," Colin answered. "I was on my way to the second floor bathroom when I thought I heard a faint hissing noise. I ducked behind a statue and since I had my camera on me, decided to see if I could get any photos of whatever was making the noise. The last thing I remember seeing a pair of really large yellow eyes through my camera lens, and I think there was something green around the eyes. Maybe it was face?"

"Hmm, there aren't that many creatures that are green," said Sirius thoughtfully. "It's mostly birds that will have green plumage, and of course snakes and toads and other reptiles and amphibians are known to be green. But none of them are said to Petrify anyone."

"Well, considering Slytherin's penchant for snakes, I would say it has to be a snake," Professor McGonagall pointed out. "Perhaps Colin's seeing the creature, or its eyes anyway, through his camera made a difference in how it affected it him, which explains why he was Petrified."

"Good point," said Sirius. "I'll investigate further with Eric. Anyway, I'm very happy to see that you've taken no lasting harm from this, Colin, but I will do my utmost to find out exactly how this happened to you and make the instigator of it all pay." Seeing Colin's alarmed look, Sirius hastened to add, "Don't worry, they'll only pay legally for their actions. I'm not going to go after them with a vendetta and exact vengeance."

Colin nodded and was then dismissed to resume hanging out with his friends. The Gryffinclaws sought out the AA and apologized for their harsh words from the previous week and were told that it was all right, the AA understood the quartet had just been horribly upset over Colin's plight, which made them act out of character.

Author's Note: I decided to come up with an explanation as to why Hogwarts had to wait until the mandrakes that Professor Sprout was growing was mature in order to revive those Petrified. It is possible that other fanfic writers may have come up with the reason of mandrakes only being season in June and not having a very long shelf life, even with Stasis or Preservation Charms/Spells. And I figured the school couldn't spare hundreds of galleons out of their budget to get a few out-of-season mandrakes or a rarely made potion to revive those Petrified.


	11. Chapter 11

Following Colin's revival, Hermione suggested that the AA could secretly brew the Polyjuice Potion so that some of them could turn into Crabbe and Goryle (and other Slytherins that Malfoy was likely to talk to), but the Slytherins in the group had given her incredulous looks. "Hello? Four of us are Slytherins, or did you forget, Hermione?" Daphne said.

"I haven't, but Malfoy's not going to be say anything revealing to any of you," Hermione responded.

"That doesn't matter," Harry said. "Or did you forget about my invisibility cloak too? All one of us needs to do is hide under it while Malfoy's in the common room and eavesdrop on whatever he's saying."

Apparently Hermione had forgotten about the cloak, for she turned scarlet and admitted that eavesdropping that way hadn't occurred to her. "It's nice to know that even brilliant people like you can forget things," Ron said teasingly and then the four Slytherins came up with a rotation on eavesdropping on Malfoy for the next couple of days.

However, all they found out when Malfoy was complaining to Crabbe and Goyle and a few other like-minded Slytherins was that while he was certainly disappointed that Sirius had shown up with cures to revive Colin and Mrs. Norris, he wasn't behind the attacks or had any idea who was. Malfoy _did_ express the wish that he could help whomever was behind them and, as he put it, "that one of the Mudbloods in that stupid Association would die like what happened the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened."

It had taken all of Daphne's self-control to keep from hexing Malfoy on the spot when she heard that, but before she left to report to the rest of the AA, still hidden underneath the cloak, she managed to shove his chair hard enough that he tumbled forward, the chair falling on top of him. As the other Slytherins in the common room were distracted with helping Malfoy up or seeing what happened, Daphne slipped out, muttering angrily under her breath.

In the second week of December, Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. For whatever reason, Malfoy had elected to stay, with Crabbe and Goyle following his lead. The AA found this very suspicious, but as they had determined that he wasn't behind the attacks, they had no idea why he was staying. Justin suggested that they stay behind in order to find out what Malfoy was up to, but Padma pointed out that it would just make him suspicious, not to mention that they'd be forced to come up with plausible reasons to explain why they were staying at Hogwarts over the holidays to their parents/guardians.

A week later, there was a piece of parchment pinned up on the notice board in the entrance hall, announcing that a Dueling Club was being started, with the first meeting that night. Since it sounded interesting and useful, the AA elected to attend, with the Ravenclaws wondering if Professor Flitwick would be the one running it, as he'd been a dueling champion in his younger days.

Unfortunately, when the AA showed up at the Great Hall for the first meeting (which had been cleared of the dining tables and had a golden stage along one wall), they saw Gilderoy Lockhart, resplendent in robes of deep plum, walk onto the stage, accompanied by none other than Professor Snape, wearing his usual black. The entire AA groaned at this, though many of them also secretly hoped that Snape would give Lockhart his due.

After Lockhart announced that he was running the Dueling Club, with Snape as his assistant, the two did their demonstration. Snape cast first, shooting out a Disarming Charm so strong that not only did Lockhart lose his grip on his wand, but he was blasted off his feet, flying backward off the stage, smashing into the wall, and sliding down it to sprawl on the floor. Several people cheered, all of them Slytherins or members of the AA.

Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end. "Well, here you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown - yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..."

Several of the AA snorted derisively; Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me -"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Unfortunately, Lockhart was the one to pair Harry with Malfoy. Harry didn't like it at all, but thought that at least it was better than Theo being paired with him instead.

Once everyone was paired up, Lockhart returned to the platform, and called. "Face your partners! And bow!"

Harry and Malfoy barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponents - _only_ to disarm them - we don't want any accidents - one...two... three-"

Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on "two". His spell hit Harry so hard he felt as though he'd been hit over the head with a saucepan. He stumbled, but everything still seemed to be working, and wasting no more time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and said the first spell that came to mind, which was, " _Rictusempra!_ "

A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing. " _I said Disarm only_!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Malfoy sank to his knees; Harry had hit him with a Tickling Charm, and he could barely move for laughing. Hearing Lockhart's shout, Harry felt slightly guilty about not following orders, enough that he then cast the Disarming Charm (he didn't want Malfoy to recover enough from laughing to retaliate). As his spell was nowhere as strong as Snape's, there was only a jet of scarlet light rather than a dazzling flash and Malfoy had his wand fly out of his hand without him falling backward.

Snape, giving Harry a stern look, cast " _Finite Incantatem_ " on Malfoy, ending his laughing fit, and helped Lockhart restore order. It looked as if nobody (other than Harry at the end) had cast the Disarming spell at all. In fact, Millicent Bulstrode seemed to have abandoned use of her wand and had poor Lavender, who was whimpering in pain, in a headlock. Dean and Ron leapt forward and pulled Millicent off, which required both their efforts as, while she slightly shorter than them, she was a lot burlier, being built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle.

"Dear, dear," said Lockhart, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan...Careful there, Miss Fawcett...Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot -"

"I think I'd better teach you how to _block_ unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair." His eyes rested on Harry (who silently groaned, as he often got called up to help Lockhart with reenactments of his books during class) and called up Harry and Malfoy.

"Now, Harry," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do _this._ " He raised his wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops - my wand is a little overexcited -"

Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too. Harry rolled his eyes and decided to do the Shield Charm, which the AA had been practicing. It should be enough to block whatever Malfoy cast, since he likely wouldn't know any spells powerful enough to get past the Shield Charm, and would be better than following Lockhart's follow-up advice of doing what he did.

"Three - two - one - go!" Lockhart shouted.

Harry quickly raised his wand and shouted, " _Protego!_ ", with a mostly invisible magical barrier appearing instantaneously. At the exact same time, Malfoy raised his wand and bellowed, " _Serpensortia_!" The end of his wand exploded. Harry watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor, and Harry wondered if his Shield Charm would be enough to block the snake.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape, who had looked shocked for a brief second before swiftly assuming an impassive look. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike. Screams sounded again and Hannah tried to pull Justin away.

Harry was sure what made him do it. He wasn't even aware of deciding to it. All he knew was that he dropped the magical shield and ran forward towards the snake, shouting stupidly, "Leave him alone!" And miraculously - inexplicably - the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. He felt the fear drain out of him. He knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though how he knew it, he couldn't have explained.

He looked up at Justin to ask if he was all right, expecting his friend to looked relieved or grateful - but certainly not shocked and scared. "Justin, are you all right?" Harry asked, getting worried. The danger was over now, so there was no reason for his friend to still look scared. "The snake's not going to hurt you, I told it to leave you alone."

The scared look disappeared, but Justin still looked shocked. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out. Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke,. He, too, was looking at Harry in an unpected way: it was a shrewd and calculating look, and Harry didn;t like it. He was also dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls. Then he felt a tugging on the back of his robes.

"Come on," said Theo's voice in his ear. "Move - come _on_ -"

Theo steered him out of the hall, the rest of the AA hurrying alongside or behind them (Neville and Susan had to drag Justin along, as he was still in shock). As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Harry didn't have a clue what was going on, and none of his friends explained anything until they were inside the Room of Requirement. Then Theo pushed Harry into an armchair and said bluntly, "You're a Parselmouth, Harry."

"I'm a what?" asked Harry blankly, before he remembered that it meant someone who could talk to snakes.

"A Parselmouth," snapped Padma. "You know, someone who can talk to snakes. Or did you forget all the research on Salazar Slytherin that we did?"

Harry shook his head and then paled as the full import sank into him. "Oh no," he said faintly. "But I can't be one! I've never spoken to snakes before, or had any speak to me! I saw a couple of snakes at the zoo before once, but one was sleeping and the other was being fed by its keeper. Neither showed any interest in me."

"Well, you certainly were speaking to the snake that Malfoy conjured," Ron said firmly. "I don't know what you said, since it was in Parseltongue and therefore sounded like hissing. It was really creepy, you know, and I'm not surprised Justin panicked."

Harry gaped at him. "I spoke a different language? But - I didn't realize - how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

"We don't know," said Susan. "The point is that you _were_ speaking Parseltongue, and gave Justin a fright."

"I'm s-sorry," Justin said weakly, getting over his shock enough to finally speak. "I know y-you were keeping the snake f-from attacking me, Harry, b-but it was s-still -"

"It's all right, Justin," Harry said. "I can imagine how scary it was for you."

"And now the whole school's going to think you're Slytherin's great-great-great-great-great-grandson or something, Harry," said Ron.

"But I'm not!" protested Harry, with a panic he couldn't quite explain. "And now everyone's going to start hating Slytherin again, because I'm in it!"

"Not _everyone_ ," snapped Parvati. "Or do you think the rest of the AA would turn on you, Theo, Daphne, and Tracey? And I'm pretty sure the prefects will see reason like they did last time people were distrusting Slytherin."

"And don't worry, we know for a fact that you aren't descended from Salazar Slytherin," Hermione said. "Maybe related to him or one of his descendants via marriage, since pretty much all the wizarding families in Britain have intermarried, but no more than that."

That much was certainly true, for the journals and a book detailing the family tree in the Potter family vault showed that the Harry's branch of the Potter family tree had no links to Slytherin or his descendants, and Eric's research had shown that the Evans family could trace their descent to a squib from the Fawcett family, who didn't have the links either. In fact, the Potter family could claim better relation to Godric Gryffindor's line (though they weren't direct descendants).

"Yeah, but the rest of the school isn't going to know that," Harry muttered. "Ugh, I suppose I had better let Aunt Lia and Uncle Sirius know what's going on." He pulled out his two-way mirror and called them.

Sirius answered and frowned when his godson explained what happened in the last half of the Dueling Club meeting and about being a Parselmouth. "That's certainly odd. None of the Potters were known to have that ability, and your parents certainly didn't. Being a Parselmouth tends to run in families, like how the Black family is known to sometimes produce a Metamorphmagus. Maybe when Riddle tried to kill you as a baby, he somehow transferred the ability to you, Harry. I'll discuss this with Lia, Remus, and Dumbledore. But if you are a Parselmouth, that may explain the voice you were hearing those two times, but your friends wouldn't. It would be a hissing noise to them, and that's assuming they could hear it over their conversation."

"Then that means, coupled with what Colin said he saw, that Slytherin's monster has to be some sort of snake!" exclaimed Harry.

"That makes sense," said Anthony thoughtfully. "Maybe it _is_ a basilisk. I know its gaze kills, but since Mrs. Norris must have seen its reflection in a puddle and Colin saw it through his camera, it resulted in Petrification instead."

"That is what Lia and I have been thinking," said Sirius. "Eric and I are going to Hogwarts to discuss this with Dumbledore tomorrow. Lia has work, or she'd come too. We'll work out where the Chamber of Secrets must be and get the basilisk taken care of. A few roosters should do the trick."

The AA was relieved to hear that and the call ended.

By next morning, however, the snow that had begun in the night had turned into a blizzard so thick that the last Herbology lessons of the term were canceled; Professor Sprout wanted to fit socks and scarves on the Mandrakes, a tricky operation she would entrust no one else. At morning break, the Hufflepuff members of the AA reported that they'd been in the library during the canceled class-time and had to talk Ernie Macmillian and Zacharias Smith out of their belief that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin. Ernie had eventually acknowledged that Harry hadn't been anywhere near the scene of the two attacks and accepted Justin's insistence that his friend had kept the snake from attacking, but Zacharias had stubbornly clung to his belief that Harry, or at least one of the Slytherins, was involved.

"Just ignore Smith," said Harry. "He doesn't really like the AA to begin with, and wasn't he one of the first people to think the Slytherins were involved after Mrs. Norris's Petrification? As long as most of the other Hufflepuffs don't think like him I'm fine."

"Well, Cedric knows you're not the Heir or behind the attacks, our prefects think the same, and they're doing damage control to keep the other Hufflepuffs from being idiots and following Smith's lead," said Susan.

The bell rang, signalling that break was over, and they scattered for their respective classes. It was after class, when the students were heading to the Great Hall for lunch, when it happened. Justin, Theodore, and Anthony left for the bathroom. On their way back, the three were walking near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom when they heard Luna exclaim, "Ginny! Wait up! What's the matter with you?"

The trio turned just in time to see Ginny walk into the bathroom, with Luna running behind her. Even though it was a girls' bathroom, the three boys peeked in to see what was going on. Ginny, holding on to what was presumably the Gryffinclaw diary, was standing in front of a sink and hissing at it. A concerned looking Luna was tugging on her arm, but Ginny appeared to take no notice as to what was happening. Suddenly, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

Anthony dashed forward and pulled Ginny back. Theo tugged the diary out of her hands and flipped through it. It was completely blank, which made him wonder if the Gryffinclaws had vanished all the writing they'd done in it, until he saw that inside the front cover was written "T. M. Riddle." Cursing the fact that the AA hadn't thought to ask to examine the diary the Gryffinclaws were writing in, he pocketed it and snapped, "Let's get out of here before the basilisk shows up and we either die or get Petrified."

The five made a hasty retreat, with Anthony and Justin holding on tightly to Ginny, who was starting to struggle, by her arms. Partway to Professor Dumbledore's office, she stopped struggling and appeared to come to herself. "What's going on?" she demanded. "Anthony, Justin, why are you holding me?"

"You were possessed," Theo said. "Why didn't your quartet show us the diary you guys were writing in? The T. M. Riddle that once owned it? That's the birth name of You-Know-Who. If we'd taken a good look at the diary, we could have told you that, and had you turn it in to Dumbledore at once."

Luna's eyes got bigger than usual, while Ginny turned pale, her freckles more noticeable. "You mean Tom tricked us?"

"Yes," said Anthony. "From what we saw, you were being possessed by Riddle's spirit or whatever that's in the diary into opening the Chamber of Secrets. I'm guessing those two times when Colin and Matt didn't remember what they were doing was when they were possessed."

Ginny looked as if she were about to cry and mumbled something about being expelled.

"You're not getting expelled," Justin said patiently. "Nor is Colin and Liam. The diary was possessing you, so it can all be blamed on Tom Riddle."

By this point, they had reached the gargoyle in front of the entrance to the headmaster's office, and that was when they realized that none of them knew the password. Theo was about to rush off to the Great Hall to get one of the teachers to help them when the gargoyle suddenly moved and Professor Dumbledore stepped out, Sirius and Remus behind him.

"Oh hello," said Professor Dumbledore. "I'm sorry, but my guests and I have a matter to handle, so you five will have to wait until we're done to meet with me."

"Actually, it has to do with the Chamber of Secrets," Justin said. "We've worked out what's going on."

Theodore pulled out Riddle's diary from his pocket and handed it over to Sirius. "The Gryffinclaw quartet have been writing in a diary. I finally got a good look at it. It was blank, so at first I assumed that they were vanishing what they wrote, but then I saw that the name written in the cover was 'T. M. Riddle'."

Anthony followed up with an explanation of finding Ginny hissing at a sink inside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and making it move aside, revealing a pipe/slide that was presumably the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and their theory that the diary of Tom Riddle had been possessing her, Colin, and Matt. Luna added that after what had happened when Matt and Colin both had gone to the bathroom alone, she had run after Ginny.

"Oh, and I think I didn't escape being possessed either," Luna said thoughtfully. "After dinner, I apparently wandered off until the Dueling Club meeting. I have no memory of it, but before I left with my friends for the meeting, I suddenly found that my coat and robes had chicken feathers on them."

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks and Professor Dumbledore said, "Hagrid came into my office earlier to report that he had found a second rooster dead and wanted my permission to cast a protective charm on the chicken coop. I assume you must have been possessed briefly into killing the school roosters, Miss Lovegood, which provides further proof that there is a basilisk in the school. Sirius, Remus, and I were going to question Miss Warren, that is Myrtle. Now that we know the location of the Chamber of Secrets, or at least the entrance to it, things will be easier."

"Could one of you get Harry?" Sirius asked. "In the time since you guys left the bathroom, the sink could have moved back to it's original space, so we'll need Harry to open the entrance again. We adults will go down with some Transfigured roosters and get them to crow in order to kill the basilisk. Once it's all been taken care of, Professor Dumbledore has given permission for the AA to go down for a look to satisfy your curiosity, since you guys helped us with this."

"In addition, all the members of the AA will get twenty-five points each for your help," said Professor Dumbledore. "And Mr. Finch-Fletchley, Mr. Nott, and Mr. Goldstein, you each get an additional thirty points for discovering that Riddle's diary was possessing the Gryffinclaw quartet, was it, and bringing it to my attention. Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood, you can explain to Mr. Creevy and Mr. Stanley what was going on, in private, and rest assured that none of you will be punished for this. Greater witches and wizards than you four have been hoodwinked by Tom Riddle."

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," Ginny and Luna said.

"Since what happened is supposed to be kept quiet," Remus said, "I'll ask Ellie to come and check up on the Gryffinclaw quartet to make sure that none of you are suffering adversely from being possessed, okay?"

Ginny and Luna nodded and the two girls left. Anthony left to get, not just Harry, but the rest of the AA, since they were allowed to know what was going on and check out the Chamber of Secrets once the basilisk was killed. Once the whole group was gathered, they crowded inside the bathroom. As Sirius had surmised, the sink had moved back in place. Professor Dumbledore questioned Myrtle about her death, and then Harry stepped in front of the sink concealing the entrance. According the Myrtle, the tap had never worked, and etched on the side was a copper snake. It took a couple of tries, with Harry having to pretend that the etched snake was real, before he succeeded in saying, "Open up," in Parseltongue.

Once the sink slid aside, revealing the slide, Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore Transfigured the rocks they had in their pockets into roosters and stuck them in conjured cages, with cloths covering the cages. Once down in the Chamber, they planned to whisk off the cloths and conjure up a great burst of light, enough to set the roosters crowing. If that didn't work, then they would do the Imperius Curse to force the crowing, which since the roosters were Transfigured, wouldn't get them in trouble for casting an Unforgiveable Curse. All three men also blindfolded themselves, to avoid the risk of accidentally gazing into the basilisk's eyes and dying.

After perhaps forty minutes of waiting, they returned. It had taken a bit of a walk to get to the main chamber, with them passing the shed skin of the basilisk on the way. Once there, Dumbledore had conjured a large slab of meat and did another spell to intensify the smell of the meat in order to lure out the basilisk. As soon as it had appeared, the roosters were set to crowing, killing it. The AA were now allowed to take a look down in the Chamber of Secrets, with Sirius and Remus escorting them, and Professor Dumbledore was going to make arrangements to have the basilisk's body harvested for potion ingredients and the like and make sure that Salazar Slytherin hadn't left anything else behind (such as other nasty surprises or his private writings) before sealing up the chamber.

"I'll make an announcement at dinnertime about how everything had been dealt with and the danger is gone, but not all the full details," Dumbledore added. "There is no need for the Gryffinclaw quartet to face any trouble from their fellow students about being hoodwinked into opening the Chamber. And naturally, please keep your association's part in all this quiet as well, all right? I will further examine Riddle's diary, with Sirius and Remus's help, and destroy it if necessary."

Harry remembered what Sirius had told him last year about finding Slytherin's locket, turned into a Dark object, in the Black house. "Tom Riddle turned his diary into a Dark object, didn't he? Like he did with Slytherin's locket."

"I assume so," Sirius said. "Dumbledore and I will see if the diary was turned into the same type of Dark object as the locket and destroy it."

The AA looked satisfied with that and then, one by one, followed Remus and Sirius down the pipe. It was quite creepy going down the tunnel to the main chamber, but they all had lit their wands with the " _Lumos_ " spell, so they could see clearly. They passed the shed skin, which looked to be about twenty feet long, and Harry paused to examine it for a minute and wonder what potions the skin could be useful in. The main chamber had the basilisk's corpse, which was longer than the shed skin, and a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin. Harry spoke Parseltongue on the statue to see if revealed any hidden passages or rooms.

The large hole in its mouth closed up, proving that it was where the basilisk had slithered out from. Harry spoke again, opening up the mouth, and Remus made his way up to peer through. He found signs that the basilisk had indeed come from there, but the chamber hidden behind the statue contained nothing else, so far as he could see.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will do a more thorough search to make sure nothing has been missed, but there doesn't seem to be anything of interest other than the basilisk," said Remus. "And that's only useful for potion ingredients and the venom being handy for destroying -" He broke off, realizing that he almost said too much, but the AA suspected that he was going to say that basilisk venom was handy for destroying what Dark objects the locket and diary were.

Sirius took the time to pry sixteen scales from the basilisk, so that each of the AA members could have a souvenir of this, and then they headed back. As by this point lunch was over, he and Remus took the AA to the kitchens so that they could get a bite to eat, and then the AA went to their afternoon classes while Sirius and Remus left to confer further with Dumbledore.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: I am sorry about the long time it took to update. I was busy with other things in my life, and for November, was occupied with participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month).

The last week of school before the start of the Christmas holidays turned out to be something of a nightmare for the AA. Professor Dumbledore had explained that he had found the Chamber of Secrets and that Salazar Slytherin had left a basilisk there (which was what had caused Mrs. Norris and Colin's Petrifications) and with the aid of some roosters, had killed the basilisk. To avoid anyone getting ideas about trying to open the Chamber, he had added, "The Chamber can only be opened with Parseltongue, so don't go thinking that you can go down there and look around." Then, to avoid having people think that Harry had been behind it all, Dumbledore continued, "Also, I have discovered that Voldemort was the one that opened the Chamber this year and was behind the attacks, via an item that he had enchanted prior to his downfall. Rest assured that said item is now destroyed, and I am investigating as to how it ended up at Hogwarts in the first place."

While this explained what had happened and assured everyone the matter was dealt with, it didn't stop all sorts of rumors from cropping up. There was speculation as to what the item was and how it was enchanted that would result in the Chamber being opened. Then there were rumors that Harry had somehow gotten his hands on the item, which explained why he had spoken Parseltongue at the first and only meeting of the Dueling Club, and had been controlled into opening the Chamber. That was better than having the rest of the school know that the Gryffinclaws had been the ones being possessed, so Harry would have put up with it if it weren't for the ones that followed.

Speculation had quickly followed on how Harry had gotten hold of the enchanted item. Most of the rumors suggested that it had been hidden somewhere in the school and he had somehow found it. However, a few didn't, saying instead that a fellow Slytherin (one who had a parent that was a Death Eater and had escaped being imprisoned for it) had managed to slip the item in among Harry's belongings, under the theory that Voldemort had given it to one of his followers. This actually wasn't all that far from the truth, but that wasn't what was the most worrying bit. The theory managed to spread to the whole school, which led it to overtake the previous rumors of Harry possibly finding the item. Speculation ran rampant as to which Slytherins had parents that escaped being imprisoned for being Death Eaters.

Unfortunately, the first name that sprang into the rumor-mongers' and gossipers' heads was that of Mr. Nott. He had been one of those that had been accused of being a Death Eater but had been cleared of all charges, and at his trial for charges of child abuse, there was the testimony of how he had planned to force his son into becoming a Death Eater if Voldemort ever returned to power. This led to speculation that Theodore being part of the AA was all an act on his part so that he could get close to Harry and set him up. After all, the fact that they were dormmates and supposed friends made it easy for Theodore to slip something into Harry's belongings without arousing suspicion. A few slightly more sensible students speculated that initially it wasn't an act and that Theodore meant to be a genuine friend, but after what his father had put him through, he had either been scared or Imperiused into planting the item on Harry.

The likes of Zacharias Smith, Draco Malfoy, and similar-minded students fanned the first set of rumors about Theo into prominence, causing the majority of the school to completely disregard the prefects and those few others that were trying to be more sensible about things. No matter how much the AA and the Gryffinclaws tried to defend Theodore and put an end to those nasty rumors, at least three quarters of the school either were openly accusing him of being a traitor or evil or did so behind his back (though they didn't trouble to keep their voices down whenever he was in earshot). Malfoy and a number of like-minded Slytherins didn't accuse Theo of being evil, but they had no problem rubbing in the fact that most of the rest of school thought so. Fred and George, in an attempt to help, started mocking, very publicly, the idea of Theodore being secretly evil, which made the AA feel slightly better, but Malfoy and Smith immediately countered with assertions that he had hoodwinked the twins as well. Fred and George had retaliated with hexes, which resulted in Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff losing thirty points each and all four of them in detention.

The teachers tried to put a stop to these rumors and have everyone leave Theodore alone, but it didn't help. Professor Snape even appeared in the Slytherin common room and had given a lecture about how Theodore Nott (and Harry Potter) had nothing to do with the Chamber being opened and to leave him alone. All this did was cause Malfoy and his cronies to only pester him whenever there were no teachers or prefects present.

Somehow Theo kept from breaking from the immense pressure he was under. He didn't show any emotion in public, steadfastly ignoring all the comments and insinuations that were thrown at him. In private, however, he did allow his mask to fall and would either rant to his friends or have a good cry, depending on whether he was angry or upset. None of them were eating in the Great Hall at mealtimes so that he wouldn't have to deal with the strain. Instead, the Hufflepuffs in the AA would get a couple hampers of food from the house elves in the kitchens and bring them to the Room of Requirement. In fact, other than attending class and going to their respective dormitories at night for bed, the AA was spending all of their time in the Room.

"Maybe once the Christmas holidays come, things will have settled," Hermione said, somewhat doubtfully, on Wednesday, when they'd met after the end of the day's classes.

"Or the holidays will give time for those horrid rumors to become further ingrained in their minds!" snapped Parvati. "They could even come up with even worse rumors!"

"Malfoy and his cronies definitely would," Tracey said darkly, one arm around Theo, who was upset and therefore crying silently into her shoulder.

"Why can't people just leave Theo alone?" demanded Justin angrily. "It should be obvious that we trust him! We've made it perfectly clear that he isn't pretending to be our friend or forced into setting Harry up! If they _had_ to accuse someone of slipping the diary in Harry's things, why didn't they accuse Malfoy? It makes more sense."

"From the way they're behaving, do you really think they'd be sensible?" Anthony asked. "Besides, I bet Malfoy started the rumor to prevent people from accusing him, or his two goons. I think Crabbe's and Goyle's fathers also escaped being sentenced for being Death Eaters."

Susan sighed. "I just wish there was something more that we could do! Those idiots won't listen to us whenever we try to defend Theo, we can't go around hexing everyone that is mean to him, and the teachers and prefects already know what's going on, but they can't put everyone in detention."

Theo lifted his head. "J-Just leave it," he said tiredly, wiping his eyes. "You can't force people to change, and I'll just have to put up with it."

" _Put up with it_?" Padma asked incredulously. "When it's obvious that the taunts are getting to you, so that you end up breaking down at least once a day? Theo, you shouldn't have to put up with any of this! As your friends, we are going to help you and try to put a stop to it!"

"And you're not eating at all, except when we force you to, because you're either too angry or too upset to do so," Ron added, though none of the AA had much appetite recently and were only eating to stay alive. "That's not healthy at all."

Harry, who was deep in thought, raised a hand. "I think I have a way to put a stop to some of the rumors. I'll get my hands on a snake, one that's harmless like a garden snake, and talk to it in Parseltongue in front of as much of the school as I can manage. That should convince the other students that I my ability as a Parselmouth isn't due to some enchanted object of Riddle's, which therefore means that Theo couldn't have planted it on me."

"I suppose that could work," said Terry thoughtfully. "Do the rest of you see any flaw to this plan?"

The others shook their heads, except for Theo, who protested that it would cause more trouble for Harry. "I don't care, Theo," responded Harry. "So long as it gets people to stop thinking that you're only pretending to be my friend and planted something one me, I'll be okay. I'll go ask Hagrid if he can get me a harmless snake."

Before Harry could follow through with this, the Gryffinclaws marched through the door. "Theo, you won't be bothered anymore," Luna announced. "We took care of it."

"How did you guys manage that miracle?" Neville asked incredulously.

"We got fed up with everything that's happened, so we announced at the start of dinner that we were the ones that had fallen prey to the enchanted object that possessed us into opening the Chamber," Colin replied.

"I made up a story about how I had found a diary hidden in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, one that was enchanted to write back," Ginny elaborated. "Naturally, I shared it with my friends, and we began writing in it, not realizing how evil it was. We ended the story with explaining how we realized that there were periods of time missing from our memories, and how Luna caught me being possessed into opening the Chamber, at which point she managed to snap me out of it before I could summon the basilisk and immediately took me to Professor Dumbledore. We also made it very clear that the AA had no involvement in the opening of the Chamber at all."

"The headmaster backed our story up," said Liam. "He also explained that he had wanted us to keep our involvement a secret, but since most of the school was idiotically insisting that Theo had planted the enchanted object on Harry, he didn't blame us for speaking out in order to set the record straight."

"But what about the trouble that this will cause for you guys?" Theo asked.

"It doesn't matter," Colin said dismissively. "People are already looking at us sideways because they find Luna weird and the rest of us weird as well for being her friends."

"And maybe now that we've quashed the rumors about Theo, people will actually see sense and listen to the prefects," Liam added. "In any case, we just couldn't let an innocent person be accused of things he's not guilty of. We really should have said something as soon as the rumors cropped up, instead of obeying Professor Dumbledore's order to stay silent."

"Anyway, once we explained the main truth of matter, we left the Great Hall and came up here to tell you all what we did," finished Luna.

The next day, a few people approached Theo and apologized for their accusations. He accepted the apologizes, but his friends had no qualms at glaring at the students in question and telling them off for being idiotic enough to listen to the likes of Zacharias Smith and Draco Malfoy rather than the teachers and prefects.

All the teachers made it very clear that better witches and wizards than a quartet of first-years had been hoodwinked by Voldemort, so the Gryffinclaws didn't face much blame for what happened. Certainly Malfoy tried to stir up blame, but Cedric Diggory asked, "Hey, Malfoy, wasn't your father one of those that said he'd been bewitched by You-Know-Who into doing his bidding? If you think four first-years ought to be able to resist being bewitched by You-Know-Who, then shouldn't your father, an adult wizard who I'm sure is quite competent, have been able to resist as well? Unless, of course, he wasn't bewitched at all and willingly did You-Know-Who's bidding."

That effectively shut Malfoy up. Still, it was a relief when Saturday came and the school term ended for the Christmas holidays.


End file.
